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Lesson with Drtornillo
Drtornillo has expressed interest in continuing his theoretical knowledge with 4-part writing. Drtornillo alread has command of the basic unerstanding of intervals, scale degrees and triads.
Lesson:
1) Drtornillo, 4-part writing is used to gain an understanding in harmony and voice leading that goes beyond creating music in 4-parts. While workin with 4-part writing our parts will be identified using the singing voices of Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. These parts may be referred to as "the soprano/alto/tenor/bass voice". These 4-parts/voices have restrictions in regards to range that we will be using for the time being (see attachment for voice ranges).
2) The exercises will be presenting using the grand staff. Soprano and Alto will share the treble clef while tenor and bass will share the bass clef. All notes in the soprano voice must have the stems facing up while notes in the alto voice must face down. Likewise, all notes in the tenor voice must face up while all notes in the bass voice must face down (see attachment).
3) Next we come to the issue of doubling. As you know, a triad consists of 3 notes. These notes are delegated a specific function. For example, in a C Major triad (C-E-G) C is the root of triad/chord, while E is identified as the 3rd or the chord and G is identified as the 5th. The reason being is that E is a third about the root note C, while G is a fifth above the root note C. Therefore they are giving the names "3rd" and "5th" of the triad/chord. For the most part our exercises will use only triads. A triad has only 3 notes but we are working with 4-part harmony. Therefore one of these notes will be used twice. This is called doubling. It is more common to double the root while doubling the 3rd and 5th on occasion (see attachment).
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