Voice Leading: Control Through Counterpoint (Part 3, Second Species: Two Against One)

Intro:

In part one we looked briefly at the first species of counterpoint where the provided and written voice move together one note at a time. Today we'll look at the second species which is a two against one type of writing where the provided voice will still only move on bar at a time, but the part we're writing will now include two notes. This allows us to start introducing dissonant intervals into our writing, and to establish some principles that will later be useful when we get to four part harmony

Dissonance Recap:

Just to clarify terms we are regarding the following intervals as dissonant: m2, M2, P4, m7, M7, and tritone.

New Guidelines:

Strong Vs. Weak:

Many readers may already have a good sense of what is meant by 'strong and weak' when it comes to music, but we'll be breaking from that convention slightly. While the shape of our usage may be similar we won't be using specific beats as our exercises will not be metered anyway, it will be similar in that the first note we write above the fixed voice will be the strong and the second note in the measure will be weak. If you need to think of it in terms of beats it will be beats 1 and 2 that are strong then 3 and 4 that will be weak. This goes against current convention, but will make sense in practice.

Strong Beats:

Just like first species the intervals will always be consonant, and when moving to a strong from a weak it's still necessary to consider voice independence rules.

Weak Beats:

Intervals occurring on weak beats can be either consonant or dissonant, but there are some guidelines to consider when moving to and from weak beats. First, it's good practice that at least one of the moves, to or from, should be a step. There are conditions where you can leap to and from a weak beat, but that's usually only done when all the intervals involved are consonant. Second, if leaping in one direction it's generally preferred to step (or even leap) in the opposite direction. Two steps up or down are never a problem, but leaping up/down twice can create issues regarding range and voice independence. Third, hidden parallels need special attention when moving away from weak beats because even if it feel like you're moving in contrary motion there can still be issues of masking between voices when arriving on the strong beats. Last, the weak beat can also be a repeat of the same note as the strong beat.

Recycling The Previous Exercise:

To keep things simple we'll keep the same exercise from previous blogs.

Octave C5 | | -> G5 | | -> F5 | | -> E5 | | -> D5 | | -> C5 | | -> E5 | | -> D5 | | -> C5

6th | | -> E5 | | -> D5 | | -> C5 | | -> B4 | | -> A4 | | -> B4 | | -> C5 | |

5th G4 | | -> D5 | | -> C5 | | -> B4 | | -> A4 | | -> G4 | | -> A4 | | -> B4 | |

3rd | | -> B4 | | -> A4 | | -> G4 | | -> F4 | | -> E4 | | -> G4 | | -> A4 | |

Unison C4 | | -> G4 | | -> F4 | | -> E4 | | -> D4 | | -> C4 | | -> E4 | | -> D4 | | -> C4

Root C4 ... -> G4 ... -> F4 ... -> E4 ... -> D4 ... -> C4 ... -> E4 ... -> D4 ... -> C4

Here we have the same 'map' as before, but now we have | | in each space to represent weak beats where consonant or dissonant intervals can occur. We can begin working through this the same as we did in the first species, and at first it's sufficient to only focus on intervals before turning focus on voice independence.

In this case we'll begin with our written voice at a P5, and start working through from there. We'll alternate between strong beats of a P5 and 3rd, and use the weak beats to get from one to the next. Our setup will look something like this.

Beat S W -> S W -> S W -> S W -> S W -> S W -> S W -> S W -> S

Written G4 | | -> B4 | | -> C5 | | -> G4 | | -> A4 | | -> E4 | | -> A4 | | -> F4 | | -> C5

Root C4 ... -> G4 ... -> F4 ... -> E4 ... -> D4 ... -> C4 ... -> E4 ... -> D4 ... -> C4

Looking just at the first beat we have several options to play around with. We could start by stepping down to F4 (P4) which would then leap up to the B4. The problem there being the leap of the tritone if that's something you're worried about. Stepping up to the A4 would mean a step up to the B4 which would be parallel movement of 3rd (we'd also get the same step up by simply staying on the G). Acceptable, but we might like other options better. We can leap up the a B4 which would allow us to use oblique movement going to the strong beat. This has a nice anticipatory effect that will be a distinct feature in four part harmony. We can also leap past the B4 to the C4 which would put us at the max range that we want to be between the voices, but also means we can step down to the B4 which also gives us contrary movement between the voices.

Conclusion:

The paragraph above is a model of how you can work through the rest of the exercise. Go through each note change, and consider what note you can use on the weak beat and how that will effect the move to the next strong beat. You can even consider voice independence. Once you've worked through this version I encourage you to try other variations and solutions. I'd even encourage you to find other fixed voice lines to write over.