music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w.

rush

Part-Writing: The Horizontal Rules

the supreme goal of part-writing is good voice leading...
making each individual voice part easy to sing by avoiding
awkward intervals or large leaps!

before we get to the specific dos and donts, lets take a look
at some important characteristics of four-voice part-writing:

in some cases, the voice

note how each voice moves
can simply stay on the same
as little as possible, going
note. This is called
to the nearest chord tone
keeping the common tone,
in each subsequent chord!
and its always cool!
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its common for the bass to

move in the opposite direction the bass line, since it provides
of the upper three voices. the foundation of the harmony
this is called contrary motion in each chord, tends to include
and it helps maintain larger leaps than the other
voice independence. three voices, but thats okay.

voice independence?

there are also a few other

four-voice harmony is a form of counterpoint, rules that apply to this style:
which is the combination of more than one

*
melody played simultaneously. in counterpoint,
when you have the leading tone
each voice is equally important; no voice is
in an outer voice (soprano or
given a role of accompaniment to another voice.
bass) it must resolve to the
in counterpoint, it is important for each voice to tonic in the next chord.
be independent; that is, no two voices should be

*
doing the exact same thing. if two (or more) you may not move any voice
voices were moving in parallel, the richness by an interval of an
of the texture would be reduced. augmented second
as a result, common practice composers were or an augmented fourth.
very consistent in avoiding two or more voices
that moved in parallel perfect octaves, parallel
perfect fifths, or parallel perfect unisons! the good news:
you can avoid all three of
these by doing the following
whenever possible:

1. keep the common tone!

2. move to the
parallel parallel parallel
octaves! fifths! unisons! nearest chord tone!
3. use contrary motion!

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