Species Counterpoint: Melody printable pdf download

music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush

Species Counterpoint: Melody

and really, to be

fair, these are

good guidelines

for any melody ...

before we start combining melodies, we need

it’s just that fux

to understand what constitutes a good melody

is a little more

in the system of species counterpoint.

strict about it.

in general, melodies should be primarily stepwise, with a single,

definite high point or low point. effective melodies tend to progress slowly toward

the high or low point and then move back toward the starting pitch.

high point

& w

yeah, yeah, Palestrina, we know

oh, and don’t repeat notes like this.

BUT

you repeated notes all the

contrapuntal melodies need to be

time. But fux was pursuing an

interesting, not boring.

ideal. Maybe he felt you could

do... better?

as you can see above, occasional leaps are okay...

why, I

SHHHH. let’s just move on.

but they come with a bunch of restrictions.

first, leaps should be no larger than a perfect fifth, with two exceptions: leaping by a

perfect octave, and leaping upward by a minor sixth. don’t do these very often, though!

w w

second, for heaven’s sake, avoid the tritone! this interval (an augmented

fourth or diminished fifth) was actively avoided so consistently that

Fux and his pals called it the diabolus in musica... the “devil in music!”

& w

leaping by a tritone is bad, but it’s also

important to avoid the tritone in other

ways... for example, this pattern, where

a tritone is outlined in the melodic line,

would be considered inappropriate.

third, leaps of a perfect fourth need to be preceded or followed by stepwise motion

in the opposite direction, to counterbalance the leap. and if a leap is larger than a

perfect fourth, it needs to be counterbalanced both before and after!

& w

This perfect fourth is counterbalanced

This perfect fifth is counterbalanced

by the step that occurs before the leap.

by steps on both sides of the leap .

& w w w w

& w

This perfect fourth is surrounded by steps,

This perfect fifth has steps on both sides,

but they aren’t in the opposite direction.

but the first one isn’t in the opposite direction.

lastly, don’t write three or more leaps in a row. You can write

two leaps in a row, but they need to outline a major or minor

triad . no diminished triads... they have tritones in them!

evil!

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Species Counterpoint: Melody

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