Harmony (10)

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Counterpoint

Generally speaking, in most SATB (music scored in 4 part harmony) written for choirs and instrumental music, the inner parts particularly, are usually tuneless and dull and lacking any real melodic movement. Sometimes however, composers attach equal importance to the individual parts as if they are having an intimate conversation or debate with each other. The example below illustrates how the left-hand (bass clef) part copies the sequence of the opening (treble clef) an octave lower. Notice how the 2 parts have the same melodic idea. Bach’s 2 part inventions (and 3 part sinfonias) all seem to have this characteristic.

• Click on the extract to see the whole page.

• This kind of counterpoint is described as imitative

If you are familiar with Bach’s 48 Preludes & Fugues then you will find plenty of examples to ponder. The above example is ‘imitative’, but the parts do not imitate each other exactly. Apart from the octave interval there are some obvious melodic variations. Exact imitation is called ‘canon’ where 2 or several parts copy one another but starting one after the other. ‘Row, Row, Row your boat’ is a well known example.

A good exercise is to analise contrapuntal music harmonically. Work out the possible or implied chord sequence by spotting the harmony notes and non-harmony notes (passing, auxillary etc. accented and unaccented) I planned to write a lot more on this subject but the 14 part video course below, covers the topic quite nicely. (I think it is by Boris Becker) The final video is a (#15) discourse on the fugue. The 2 extra videos at the end of this series (#16 & #17) are lovely fugal arrangements of tunes by ‘Lady Ga Ga‘ and ‘Britney Spears‘ – you may believe when you see it!.

The following is an extract from Wikipedia’s page on counterpoint

General principles

In its most general aspect, counterpoint involves the writing of musical lines that sound very different and move independently from each other but sound harmonious when played simultaneously. In each era, contrapuntally organized music writing has been subject to rules, sometimes strict. By definition, chords occur when multiple notes sound simultaneously; however, harmonic, “vertical” features are considered secondary and almost incidental when counterpoint is the predominant textural element. Counterpoint focuses on melodic interaction—only secondarily on the harmonies produced by that interaction. In the words of John Rahn:

It is hard to write a beautiful song. It is harder to write several individually beautiful songs that, when sung simultaneously, sound as a more beautiful polyphonic whole. The internal structures that create each of the voices separately must contribute to the emergent structure of the polyphony, which in turn must reinforce and comment on the structures of the individual voices. The way that is accomplished in detail is…’counterpoint’.

The separation of harmony and counterpoint is not absolute. It is impossible to write simultaneous lines without producing harmony, and impossible to write harmony without linear activity. The composer who chooses to ignore one aspect in favour of the other still must face the fact that the listener cannot simply turn off harmonic or linear hearing at will; thus the composer risks creating annoying distractions unintentionally. Bach’s counterpoint—often considered the most profound synthesis of the two dimensions ever achieved—is extremely rich harmonically and always clearly directed tonally, while the individual lines remain fascinating.

Now try our harmony quiz