Species Counterpoint

Harmony

As with all style 'rules' in Counterpointer, each of these can be turned on or off as needed to produce the desired style. They are available in the "Set Style" window when doing Free Counterpoint.

Begin and end each piece or major section with perfect consonances (unison, fifth, octave).

Allow full major triad at beginning or end if 3 parts or more.

Allow imperfect consonance in a voice entering late if 3 parts or more. 'Imperfect' refers to thirds and sixths and any combination of these with octaves (tenths, thirteenths, etc.)

Do not place a 5th or 3rd below the cantus firmus at either the beginning or the end. The cantus firmus will always begin and end with the tonic, so placing anything but an octave beneath it would give the impression that the composition is beginning or ending in a different mode than intended; the lower tone of the fifth or third would seem to be a new tonic.

Avoid empty fifths/fourths (fifth or fourth lacking a third or sixth above the bass).

Allow in passing if a third/sixth is within the same beat.

Allow at the beginning and/or end.

Require the major third in a closing sonority even if thirds are not required elsewhere.

Require the 5th or 4th in each sonority if there are 3 or more parts.

Avoid doubling. Avoid repeating the same pitch class in a sonority, e.g. two C's in different octaves, etc. In two part writing much doubling would be tedious.

Allowed if texture is 3 voices or more.

Avoid doubling a major third. This is hard to avoid sometimes, but a useful principle for balancing a sonority.

Allow if neither doubled voice is the highest in sonority. Which would mean the doubled third was not as noticeable.

Avoid doubling a seventh. This is because the best resolution of a seventh is downward, and both of two sevenths could not simultaneously be resolved that way without parallel octaves.

Require at least 3 different pitch classes when texture is 4 or more voices. In music emphasizing triadic harmony this would promote full sonorities.

Not required at the beginning and/or end. If you are requiring only perfect harmonies at terminal points.

Avoid doubling a leading tone. This is more important than the doubled major third: the leading tone will tend to imply movement to the tonic, producing parallel octaves.

Allow if syncopated. Syncopation could make it less noticeable if one of the leading tones resolves atypically.

Allow if not combined with subdominant degree. This refers only to tonal harmony: major and minor. The subdominant will form an augmented fourth with the leading tone that strongly implies a resolution to the tonic harmony.

Allow if mediant degree is present (i.e., not a dominant harmony). Even if the subdominant is not present, the presence of both the mediant and the leading tone would be evidence that the intended harmony is not the dominant but the iii or III chord. And the leading tone in that case wouldn't need to lead.

Leading tone should move to tonic if harmony is dominant. If it's clear that the harmony is a V or vii dim, require that the leading tone move to the tonic.

Only necessary if combined with subdominant degree. That's because the resulting dissonance would make the resolution more important.

Not required if leading tone is an inner voice. Bach often allows an inner voice leading tone to move downward.

Allow alternate resolution to submediant. If the following harmony is not the tonic but the submediant, allow the leading tone to move to the submediant degree instead of upward to the tonic.

Avoid cross relation (using in close proximity both a pitch and its chromatically altered form).

Allow if not adjacent. If the notes are not immediately adjacent allow the cross relation.

Allow if unessential. Allow if one of the notes forming the cross relation is not part of the prevailing harmony.

Allow if movement includes a leap. A leap from one of the tones of the cross relation might tend to make it less noticeable.

Place only perfect consonances in accented positions. This could be consistent with an archaic style.

Avoid harmonic syncopation (carrying harmony from weak to strong beat). Syncopated harmony would not be typical of either the Palestrina style or the 18th century style. Instead, the syncopation of melody contrasts with harmony changes.

Write to the specified harmony if supplied in the exercise. If you are provided chords to "realize" in voice leading, the implied harmony of your counterpoint should agree with the specified chords. If the chord names are written out in the exercise then Counterpointer will mark an error if your counterpoint is not consistent with the suggested harmony.

Remain in the mode, except for conventional departures. Keep to the notes of the mode of the cantus firmus, except for characteristic departures as described in Alteration of Modal Tones.

Require minimum 2 chord changes per measure. This could be used to help avoid static harmony.

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