3-voice, 1st-species, Dorian mode

The academic year is over, hooray! I fired up my score editor earlier today, and found that before I got busy last summer I managed to complete the exercises in 3-voice, 1st-species, Dorian mode. I'll need to do a fair amount of review before I can get back up to speed, and confirm that this is correct. But even if it's incorrect, I still like the way it sounds.I hope it won't be another eleven months before the next update...

Marking my own work

It's getting harder to be confident in marking my own work. I've adopted a multiple pass technique that seems reliable so far. I'll edit this post if I end up changing my approach.

First pass: check for fifths, eighths, and unisons on the first beat, and make sure they're entered via contrary motion. (I'm especially prone to error when entering the penultimate bar.)

Second pass: scan through for bs and fs. They're always dissonant against each other, so double check any b-f harmonies. Also check for exposed tritones in the counterpoint any time a b or f appears at the peak or trough of a melodic run. If the counterpoint uses any accidentals (for example, in the closing formula) run the same set of tritone leap/exposed tritone checks on the accidental.

Third pass: locate all dissonances, and double check that they are entered and left stepwise, or are part of a cambiata formula.

Fourth pass: scan through the counterpoint and note every jump larger than a fifth. Double check that none of those leaps are forbidden. Also double check that any leap larger than a fifth is "recovered."

5th Species Dorian

Fifth species combines all the rules of the previous species: whole notes, halves, quarters, and ligatures. Moving from fourth species, in which there's next to no flexibility, to fifth, in which there's a huge amount of flexibility, is a time-consuming relief. With so many possibilities, I can mess around indefinitely with bars I don't like until I find an approach that's better. This first exercise, in Dorian mode, took more than an hour to write 11 bars, but I like the result:

4th Species, Dorian Mode

This species is also called "ligature," or "syncopation." Two half-notes are set against each whole-note, but the half-note on every downbeat is tied to the half-note that came before it. So, to the ear, we've got whole notes against whole notes, with the counterpoint offset by half a bar.

I've only done the Dorian exercises, so far. My impression is that the rules governing 4th species are much more confining that the previous species. Several times I found myself in a position where I had only one option in three or four consecutive bars. The impression of confinement is supported by the fact that my solutions are identical to Josephus's for big stretches.

I think 4th Species will sound wonderful when it's put together with a third voice, but with only two voices, it's a little bit dull:

Species 3, Dorian Mode

These are getting harder fast. In third species counterpoint, four quarters are set against each whole note. My big lesson from the exercise I've posted below: 'f's in the cantus firmus make it difficult to write a counterpoint below. That's because you've got two adjacent dissonances: c-f is a 4th, and b-f is an augmented 4th. In the sixth bar, here, the only way I could see to get out of that bind was the cambiata formula.



It takes forever to mark, then tinker. It's hard to believe things are going to get still more complicated. (On the other hand, it's also hard to believe how much improvement I can observe in working through an exercise set. These Dorian mode exercises I've been posting are always the first ones in a set. It usually takes me about 1/3 as much time to complete the Ionian mode-- the last one in every set-- as it did the Dorian.)

Species 2, Dorian Mode

Second species is two half-notes set against each whole note in the cantus firmus. It's much harder to get right than whole against whole...



Also, I found a pretty amazing online counterpoint tutor. It abstracts Fux's rules, much like I've been doing for myself. The best part, though, is a Java applet that detects errors in your compositions. I've been using it to make sure my counterpoints follow the melodic rules-- those are the ones I have the most trouble remembering, so far.