# Another piece - Beware, strange things happening inside



## rbarata

Hello, here's another small piece submitted to your criticism.

There are a lot of rules being broken in it (at least I know I'm breaking them which is good, I think).
We have sucessive leaps bigger than 3rd's, both harmonic and melodic tritones, harmonic 2nd's...you name it. There are enough for all tastes.

Anyway, in general this sounds good to me somehow. So, or my ears are damaged or I'm doing something acceptable (probably not to Palestrina or Bach).

I'll rearrange everything later to comply with the rules.

Here it is, score and audio:










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https://soundcloud.com/rbarata%2Fmy-free-counterpointer-iii


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## Phil loves classical

The only leap that felt bad to me was the C to A on the bass of bar 3. Wasn't too keen on the ending with the octave either.


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## rbarata

Phil loves classical said:


> The only leap that felt bad to me was the C to A on the bass of bar 3. Wasn't too keen on the ending with the octave either.


I see...altough I like that leap with that dissonance (I ear it as a passing tone, as all dissonances in there), I could use a "D" or an "A". Maybe an "A" 'cause it could replace the effect I'm after, although not exactly the same.

What would you sugest for the ending? I tried to, at least in the final bar, to follow the "rules".


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## Phil loves classical

Maybe a B in the bass for the last note. I also feel the rhythm is a bit rigid.


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## rbarata

Changed the piece a little, melody included.









Solve two issues related with the tie notes in measures 4 to 6:

- The first note of a tie must be no more than a half measure in value (measures 4-5)
- The first note of a tied pair must be the same length or double the length of the second (measures 5-6)

Some issues remain:

- Altered tones are outside of the mode. Didn't changed them deliberately.
- a melodic leap of and aug 4th in measures 7-8 (C to F#)
- parallel 4ths between CF and bass in measures 7-8
- a leap from an altered tone not allowed, unless downward limited to a 3rd (measure 4 of the bass).

etc
etc

I could keep making changes and correct everything but then the music would change to something boring.
I'll keep this one as it is and change to another melody.


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## EdwardBast

Is this counterpoint being written for a class? Are you attempting to emulate any particular style?


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## rbarata

EdwardBast said:


> Is this counterpoint being written for a class? Are you attempting to emulate any particular style?


No, not a class. I'm learning by myself. I'm concentrating on Palestrine at the moment.


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## EdwardBast

rbarata said:


> No, not a class. I'm learning by myself. I'm concentrating on Palestrine at the moment.


If you are at all serious about this goal, then you deserve to know that none of what you have written is remotely in a style resembling Palestrina. You should read Knud Jeppesen's _Counterpoint_, which is a meticulous distillation of Palestrina's style. It contains discussion and analysis of specific works by Palestrina. However, the fact that it primarily uses C clefs will make it difficult if one isn't used to them. You could find another book for exercises.


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## mikeh375

I went through these two all those years ago and found them very instructive....(the second link is free!)

https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/polyphonic-composition-introduction-art/author/swindale/

https://archive.org/details/contrapuntaltech00morr/page/n7


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## rbarata

EdwardBast said:


> If you are at all serious about this goal, then you deserve to know that none of what you have written is remotely in a style resembling Palestrina. You should read Knud Jeppesen's _Counterpoint_, which is a meticulous distillation of Palestrina's style. It contains discussion and analysis of specific works by Palestrina. However, the fact that it primarily uses C clefs will make it difficult if one isn't used to them. You could find another book for exercises.


Thanks for the reply, Edward

I'm reading Knud Jeppesen's _Counterpoint: The Polyphonic Vocal Style of the Sixteenth Century_. Is it the same book?

I know what I wrote is far from Palestrina style, among other factors, the melody doesn't help that much because it also brokes some of the "rules".
Basically I'm creating melodies from my own and harmonize them trying to follow Palestrina. In the particular case above, I liked so much the melody that, even counsciously breaking the Palestrina "rules", I decided to keep it and follow its rules whenever possible without going against my own taste.

My method at the moment is to harmonize a melody using only my knowledge and when I think it's finished I check the work carefully by myself, and after using a software called "Counterpointer", by Ars Nova.
Somehow, I think I'm benefiting more by seeing where my own taste differs from Palestrina's "rules". It's a comparison work between my XXI influenced taste against the one at the time of Palestrina.

Mikeh, thanks for the links. Infact when something is not clear n one book, I read the same subject from other books trying to find a clearer explanation. These will be additional sources.


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