Lessons with Matthaeus

Hi Máté,

That was so much better! Excellent! I really liked what you did on the second minim of bar 3 - moving from II6/3 to V4/2 over a stationary bass - that's really classy. Nice use of the passing 6/4 as well!

I only have two very minor criticisms, just for you to note for the future. In the C major progression - you move from IV to V/iii across bars 1-2. This is OK in principle, but the roots are a tritone apart, and therefore 'unrelated' (that's what Tovey said at least). You do see the progression from time to time, but it is usually reserved for moments expressing great anguish. The tritone was associated with the devil and suffering in Bach's era! Do you know the chorale 'Es ist genug'? In Riemenschneider it's no. 216 - and the tritone is used to great effect (in one part the bass moves chromatically down from A all the way to D#).

However, that's not quite in keeping with the rest of your harmonies!

Your feminine endings are also very good, except for one tiny problem in the f minor one. In bar 2, you go from vii to V7. This progression isn't very effective, mainly because V7 and vii are almost the same - V7 is like vii over the dominant note! Which other chords do you think might have worked instead?

If you don't mind I'd still like you to do the other exercise I set out in the previous post if you can. It's quite a lot of work, but it will get you even more used to using all the techniques we've covered so far at the same time. After all, they are things that if you get right now, will mean you can compose good music forever.

Matt

Hello Matt,

Thanks for the criticisms and advices, I try to keep them in mind!

About the D major progression; would it matter if the chromatic bass line would not contain all the 12 notes (rising from D maj 6/3 to B min 6/4)? I'm not sure I could do that.

Máté

Hi Máté - Oh of course not all the 12 notes! What I meant is all the notes between F# and B, and then the i6/4 cadence once you've arrived in b minor. So something like this:

(D: ) I6/3 -x-x-x-x - vi
(b: ) ----------------- i (5/3) - x - i6/4 - V7 - i

(x are other chords that you can decide)
Is that clearer? Sorry. A chromatic line doesn't contain all the notes in tonal music usually! It's normally an ascending or descending chromatic fourth that you hear (like in Dido's lament).

Matt

Hi Matt,

This was the most difficult homework I've ever had! I'm not sure I've done everything right, but I hope that there aren't too many mistakes.

To answer to your question, I think it is easy to make suspensions on vii6/3 between I5/3 and I6/3, because their roots are second apart (their is no common note) so keeping any note of I in the next chord creates a suspension; and since vii is diminished, there is no need to worry about paralell perfect 5ths (?).

Máté

PS. Sorry about answering so late, but I was very busy in the last few days.

Hi Máté,

Very good work. It's definitely time to read the next lesson, you've really come on! The chromatic progression in particular is excellent. There's only really one mistake - something you didn't know - you can't have a suspension of a 6/4 (except if it occurs in a sort of cliched ending over a pedal) - the chord has such a 'specific function' it sounds very strange.

One or two things you've done are a little unorthodox - 2-1 bass suspensions (that are really 9-8 suspensions) tend not to have other suspensions with them, but there is nothing really 'wrong' about this. (Normally you would have a B in the alto on the third crotchet on the second bar before the C#).
The doubled third is theoretically excellent the voice leading is superb - although perhaps a little strange when you hear it - maybe because the E is in the inner voice and not prominent enough. In any case it's excellent work.

You're more or less right about the reason that it's easy to create double suspensions with I-vii6/3-I. Basically it's because the bass notes AND often melody notes are a step apart - and it's always very easy to create suspensions when you have that.

OK so now if you're ready I think you can go on to the tutorial on harmonisation. Take it slowly though and take as much time as you need with homework. I'm never in a hurry!

Matt

Hi Matt,
I've never expected such a positive feedback - Thanks!
I've just taken a look at the harmonization tutorial and seemed very difficult to me, so I need a bit more time to understand that...

Máté

Hello Matt,

I've managed to read the whole lesson (4 or 5 times), and I must say your harmonization of the chorale is great and sounds like Bach! Although the harmonization of the minuet is unclear to me. Some notes are not harmonized (2nd note of bar 3 and bar 7), and there are paralell octaves, however between different instruments (S-T bar 1 paralell, T-B bar 2 contrary). Are these allowed by the classical style, so could I use them in my later work? (I'm not against parallells)

I have also problems with the homework. I've already started the harmonization (of the G maj h/w) by writing in the bass:
G | C | D | G || G | ? | A | D ||

I don't know what to do with the 6th measure. It have a raised leading note suggesting dominant harmony (leading to D major), while the scale istelf suggests tonic harmony (D C# B A) because C# is just a passing note. (?) I have no clue how to reach that new tonic.

Btw I've just realized that I have almost zero knowledge about instrumental music, so it may be a little harder for me to understand how it works, but I will do my best.

Thanks!

Máté

Hi Máté,

Thanks for reading. I'll answer all your questions when I get the chance, but the parallels you spotted are really bad mistakes on my behalf! I'm so sorry! I have no idea why I didn't spot them - my only excuse is that I was tired and without a piano when I wrote it. Haydn's harmonisation of this passage actually has parallel fifths in it for some reason. But generally speaking they're not allowed - and what I've done is wrong! Nevertheless, the principles that I discussed still hold true. I'll get back to you as soon as I can!

Matt

Oh dear that's pretty embarrassing. Oh well - this is what happens when you don't check things properly! As for using parallels in general - the classical era composers were all actually very careful and avoided them wherever possible (the romantics were more laid back about it). However, as we'll see in the next lesson they did sometimes use DELIBERATE doubling in octaves. This only ever occurs in the bass line or melody (doubling an inner part at the octave would cause loads of problems for the voice leading).

Bar 6 is just a D major chord (how about a first inversion?) - however don't feel that you have to harmonise each bar one at a time - you can have more than one chord per bar!

Also (and this answers your other question) you don't usually need to harmonise the UPBEATS (technically known as anacruses). In choral and instrumental music, you'll often find that upbeats sound in a single voice, or just one or two rather than the whole texture. The reason for doing this is that the full force of the harmony comes on the main beats - that's why there are some 'unharmonised' notes in my Haydn minuet. In the G major exercise, for example, you could leave the triplet upbeats unharmonised, or just harmonise them with one voice (maybe in triplets too? - using two part counterpoint i.e. thirds and sixths - if that's too hard don't worry). Sounds like you've got the right idea though, all those chords should work - I'll give you a little advice about the last few bars - in bar 5 you can use the passing 6/4 for example on those two Ds.


from bar 5: (quavers: ) B A (6/4) (crotch: ) G | (dotted crotch: ) F# (quaver) E | (minim: ) A | D (quavers A D)...

Matt

Hi Máté

Everything OK with this homework?