# Four Part Harmonization



## Celloissimo (Mar 29, 2013)

I've been working on this exercise in which the soprano part is given, and you have to construct a bassline from it and then fill in the inner parts according to the rules of voice leading. The chord analysis is done by myself. How can I make this harmonization stronger and more effective? I feel like the voice leading is awkward with the successive doubled thirds of the triad in m.3 and the very jagged tenor voice as well. Thanks!

Link: http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/cdc82a09f903fc43294673987569500d20558f7e


----------



## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Celloissimo said:


> I've been working on this exercise in which the soprano part is given, and you have to construct a bassline from it and then fill in the inner parts according to the rules of voice leading. The chord analysis is done by myself. How can I make this harmonization stronger and more effective? I feel like the voice leading is awkward with the successive doubled thirds of the triad in m.3 and the very jagged tenor voice as well. Thanks!
> 
> Link: http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/cdc82a09f903fc43294673987569500d20558f7e


The successive doubled thirds are quite easy to fix - change the alto down to a D in the first chord, then the tenor down to a G in the second chord, which will also smooth out the tenor line a bit.
I would suggest just going over the whole exercise an looking for ways to improve it.


----------



## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

OK here's my take.

The most serious problem is the parallel octave of tenor and soprano going from ms.3 to ms. 4. Since the soprano is given have the pitch "G" in the tenor (ms.3). Normally you double the root anyway with minor chords in root position.

Less serious are the other two doubled thirds (beat 2, ms. 1 however is truly unwarranted, while beat 1, ms. 3 is OK because you approach and leave them by opposite direction).

More picky = use small Roman numerals for minor chords. Also you used one 1st inversion (ms. 4, beat 1). If you are now beyond just doing exclusively root position chords then you can use more than just one of them to create much more melodic/interesting bass line.


----------



## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

I thought it was pretty good, there's nothing really bad about the tenor part, it wold be perfectly singable if this were a chorale. The double thirds don't seem like the end of the world either, but Moonlight's suggestion would work (with the alto singing D on the d minor and then D again on the g minor, and the tenor going from F in the d-minor triad to G in the g-minor one). Also, given that you have the tenor and soprano in octaves in that measure, it might be a good idea to change it (took me a while to realize that).

If you wanted you could add passing tones, like in the second measure the tenor could go Bb, A, G, instead of just from Bb to G...I have in an attachment what I mean.


----------



## Celloissimo (Mar 29, 2013)

MoonlightSonata said:


> The successive doubled thirds are quite easy to fix - change the alto down to a D in the first chord, then the tenor down to a G in the second chord, which will also smooth out the tenor line a bit.
> I would suggest just going over the whole exercise an looking for ways to improve it.


Wouldn't that make a parallel fifth between the Soprano and Tenor?


----------



## Iasper (Jun 27, 2013)

I believe MoonlightSonata forgot that, in V-VI, the leading tone has to resolve, so the voicing in the first chord of bar 3 is correct. If you change the tenor to G in the second chord of bar 3, you get parallel thirds with the soprano: A-Bb and F-G. You do, however have a parallel octave between soprano and tenor in bar 4 when both voices go from Bb to G; this can easily be fixed with the suggestion MoonlightSonata posted by changing the tenor in the first voicing of the II chord to G. I'd avoid chord inversions unless you really know what you are doing with root positions because they have some additional rules. A suggestion for bar 1 is, rather than keeping alto, tenor and bass the same while your soprano moves up resulting into a double third, having alto and tenor move up to the next chord note as well, giving A F C F from the top to the bottom. You won't need any changes in the rest of the piece since you can go to your IV voicing without any problems from this one.


----------

