Voice Leading: Control Through Counterpoint (Part 4: Adding More Voices)

Intro:

Going beyond two voices in counterpoint has some footguns to watch out for, but the overall complexity doesn't change that much. The biggest consideration involves spacing between voices. If voicings get too wide the overall sound becomes weak, but if the voicings become too tight the sound can either become muddy in the lower range with inner voices suffering from a lack of movement. All the same guidelines apply when it comes to movement between voices and controlling for dissonant intervals.

Naming Conventions:

Adding more voices it becomes necessary to have more precise ways to identify which voice is being discussed. While older texts may use terms like cantus, principal, etc we'll stick with more modern terms to identify the range in which a voice generally functions. These may or may not be already familiar to you, but we'll go over them just to be safe

Bass: C2 to G3

Tenor: E3 to G4

Alto: D4 to E5

Soprano : G4 to B5

Considerations:

Spacing:

The ranges above cover most use cases, and depending on the actual instruments used these ranges can be adjusted accordingly. In most cases the largest interval between each voice should be an octave with the exception of bass voice which can be as large as an octave plus a fifth between the tenor. Voices may overlap (ie, Alto goes below Tenor), but this should be done sparingly. In a lot of cases, it's usually better to write your voices so they take over a line in their own range rather than crossing into another.

Time:

Generally, the upper voices will have a lot more movement than the lower voices with much of it being stepwise while lower voices will feature more leaps. This relationship can be flipped, or there can be situations where the middle voices move a lot in steps while the outer voices move slower in leaps. Regardless of how each voice moves the guidelines for voice independence and consonance/dissonance remain the same.

Voice Independence:

The challenges with 4 voices doesn't necessarily increase, but the opportunities to create parallel movement between voices definitely increase. This is especially true for the inner voices that may not have as many options for movement. This is usually solved by having inner voices most use oblique movement or drones. This can make for boring part writing for whoever is unfortunate to get that part, but it is a valid way to solve the problem. Fortunately, a lot of the guidelines can be also be overlooked in the inner voices as long as the Soprano and Bass voices remain strongly independent.

Intervals:

The convenient thing about tempered tuning is that all notes have the same relationship regardless of exact pitch. For example, the M3 between C3 and E3 is treated the same as the interval created between C3 and E4 (still a M3). However, you can still have situations where the interval between a Tenor and Also is a P5, but the interval between the Bass and Alto is a m7 (C3 in the bass, E3 in the Tenor, and B5 in the Alto).

Conclusion:

This blog is deliberately short as we've reached a point where we will be shifting into more modern theory including keys, scales, and chords. Up to this point the main focus has been understanding the root elements independent of modern conventions. Next week's blog will be a little different as I'll be making a video to review what's been covered so far, and give more concrete examples and demonstrations. I may even go into a bit more detail on a couple topics for thoroughness. With that, be sure to play around with adding voices with these considerations in mind. You can still use the initial example to build from. Start with first species counterpoint, and then move to second species when comfortable.