# First species two part exercise - what would you do?



## GeorgeWeb

Currently brushing up on my counterpoint from the start and curious what other people would do with this cantus firmus.


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## EdwardBast

Questions:

Renaissance style or 18th century?

Cantus firmus in the soprano?

What I would do with the cantus firmus is have you write the counterpoint and then suggest alternatives if there's a problem.


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## GeorgeWeb

EdwardBast said:


> Questions:
> 
> Renaissance style or 18th century?
> 
> Cantus firmus in the soprano?
> 
> What I would do with the cantus firmus is have you write the counterpoint and then suggest alternatives if there's a problem.


I am using the CT as soprano and Counterpoint in composition, Salzer as my text so 18th century I think?

This was my thinking


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## GeorgeWeb

GeorgeWeb said:


> I am using the CT as soprano and Counterpoint in composition, Salzer as my text so 18th century I think?
> 
> This was my thinking
> 
> View attachment 159858


Ok, as soon as i posted i spotted the error. Got rid of the Aug.


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## mikeh375

^^4th semibreve octave D is not the best solution, b flat in the lower vox is preferable.


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## GeorgeWeb

mikeh375 said:


> ^^4th semibreve octave D is not the best solution, b flat in the lower vox is preferable.


Great, thanks for the tip Mike


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## EdwardBast

Beginning on G was also a possibility.


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## GeorgeWeb

EdwardBast said:


> Beginning on G was also a possibility.


Thanks for the suggestion. Would the rest of the exercise still work if I started on the G?


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## EdwardBast

GeorgeWeb said:


> Thanks for the suggestion. Would the rest of the exercise still work if I started on the G?


Oh sure. The G minor triad it implies is within the key of Bb. Were it not for the F natural in the c.f., it would have been easy to write the whole phrase in G minor using F# for the leading tone.


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## GeorgeWeb

My next counterpoint exercise for anyone who would like to join in

I will treat this as an alto line and put in a lower counterpoint in the tenor range.

I think that A might be a little high for an alto so transposing it down to b flat would be better, but that is just a guess rather than anything that comes from any knowledge or expertise. Maybe someone here will know better on a comfortable alto range.

Thanks for the tips so far. Happy Friday from Auckland, New Zealand


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## GeorgeWeb

EdwardBast said:


> Oh sure. The G minor triad it implies is within the key of Bb. Were it not for the F natural in the c.f., it would have been easy to write the whole phrase in G minor using F# for the leading tone.


That is really useful. Thanks Edward


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## GeorgeWeb

GeorgeWeb said:


> My next counterpoint exercise for anyone who would like to join in
> 
> I will treat this as an alto line and put in a lower counterpoint in the tenor range.
> 
> I think that A might be a little high for an alto so transposing it down to b flat would be better, but that is just a guess rather than anything that comes from any knowledge or expertise. Maybe someone here will know better on a comfortable alto range.
> 
> Thanks for the tips so far. Happy Friday from Auckland, New Zealand
> 
> View attachment 159938


This was my initial thoughts on a tenor counterpoint.

I think next I will use the cantus firmus to write an upper counterpoint, and transpose to a new key just to keep things interesting.


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