Quote:
Originally Posted by Dev
parallel thirds/sixths should never be a problem. Only fifths and octaves.
|
Well, there was never a "rule" against them, but that doesn't mean they are appropriate in every music. Leading voices parallel to each other for extended passages goes against contrapunctual principles regardless of the interval between those voices. You probably won't find parallel sixths or thirds for extended periods in a Palestrina motet, even if two voices certainly can run parallel in thirds/sixths for a couple of notes.
I don't really know much about baroque orchestration either, but I've seen quite extended passages of parallel sixths and thirds, namely in concerti grossi which often were orchestrated after the motto "all available instruments play the same few voices as loudly as possible"
But of course also in orchestrations more refined than that.
This passage for the first and second violins, for example, is out of Händel's concerto grosso in B flat major (op. 3 no. 2):
Something like that is -very- typical.
So no, I don't think those parallel thirds and sixths in your piece are a problem at all.