Medieval Ballad with Four Part Harmony

I wrote this medieval- or renaissance-style piece this afternoon partly as an exercise in four part harmony. I've had no formal training in this area--in fact very little training in harmony at all--so I'd appreciate critical comments, particularly from anyone who understands four part harmony.

Thanks for listening.

Medieval Ballad (recorder).mid

Medieval Ballad (French Horn).mid

Medieval Ballad.pdf

I'm no expert, but it seems fine to me, good job.

I listened to the piece a couple of times. It was enjoyable, so that's a good start. It almost felt like a song that was...well...without words.

Your voice leading for the most part looks fine. I didn't take the time to scrutinize the score for parallels or other trip-ups. In case you have trouble with counterpoint, there's three things I like to remember: one goes up, the other goes down; if it sounds wrong, it probably is; and, occam's razor: the simplest line is the best (mainly stepwise). For simple writing, these three points are the most important to consder, in my mind.

However, this is not a medieval piece, or even a renaissance piece, for two reasons: one, it is not in either style, and two, it was not written during either of the two time periods.

So, how can you improve your renaissance writing abilities? (because writing medieval music is not fun by anyone's stretch of the imagination). First thing to keep in mind is that functional harmony had not been "invented" yet (excluding Montiverdi). So while you have these nice harmonic progressions, they really don't fit. You're thinking too vertically to write renaissance music. Think horizontally. (And, although some renaissance pieces SEEM to have harmonic progressions, it wasn't really a completely conscious choice by the composer). The first couple seconds or so of your piece sounded renaissance, but after that sounded like renaissance-imitation for that very reason.

The second thing you can do to improve your writing is, as always, listen listen listen. And not just to recorder and horn consorts but also to plenty of vocal music, secular and religious. Instruments in renaissance times were still just voice-replacers (for the most part).

RavingSpleen (and impresario): Thanks very much for taking the time to comment.

I understand your point about the harmony not being vertical enough: that may be partly an influence from Celtic music, in which the parts, where they occur as separate voices, tend to be distinctly horizontal. I

As far as your piece was an exercise in four part harmony, it was successful.

And I guess I miswrote, but I meant that your piece is too vertical in its writing to be Renaissance, not that it wasn't vertical enough.

Keep in mind that I'm nitpicking (and also that I could very well be wrong); if you were to ask any old person the street, they would tell you that your piece sounded like it was Medieval. You can name your piece whatever you want: just be careful who your audience is.

Like I said, the substance is there, you achieved what you set out to do (plus it sounded nice). If you want to pursue an interest in Renaissance music, I was just pointing out that, yes, this is a more of a mix-up of different styles. It's totally up to you though.

Keep writing!