What is voice leading in harmony?
Voice leading (or part writing) is the linear progression of individual melodic lines (voices or parts) and their interaction with one another to create harmonies, typically in accordance with the principles of common-practice harmony and counterpoint.
What makes good voice leading?
The term “voice leading” refers to the way in which individual voices move from chord to chord. The best voice leading occurs when all individual voices move smoothly. You can achieve this by moving between chords using the same note or moving up or down by a step in the inner voices of the chord, whenever possible.
Is voice leading the same as counterpoint?
With a single voice, voice leading is just how to make it singable. In counterpoint, voice leading means that each voice has to proceed from note to note in a singable manner.
Which voice leading model best follows the law of the shortest way?
Chord succession follows the law of the shortest path, which favors common tones and parsimonious voice leading.
What is a voice leading irregularity?
In music, an irregular resolution is resolution by a dominant seventh chord or diminished seventh chord to a chord other than the tonic. Voice leading may cause the seventh to ascend, to be prolonged into the next chord, or to be unresolved.
What is contemporary voice leading?
Voice leading , also known as part writing, refers to rules about melodic motions of voices involved in harmonic progressions. The primary concerns behind voice leading rules are independence of parts, voicing of chords, and economy of melodic motion for the sake of singable parts.
How do you voice a 7th chord?
There is one general rule for voice leading any seventh chord: resolve the 7th of the chord down by step. All other voices should move smoothly to the nearest chord tone in a voicing containing the appropriate doubling.
What is common tone voice leading?
Common Tone-Stepwise (CTS) is a kind of voice leading which keeps the movement of the top three voices as smooth as possible. These voices either stay stationary or move by step. (Unlike the other voices, the bass will skip to the next note.)
What is a figured bass in music?
Figured bass, also called thoroughbass, is a kind of musical notation in which numerals and symbols (often accidentals) indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones that a musician playing piano, harpsichord, organ, lute (or other instruments capable of playing chords) play in relation to the bass note that these …
What are voice leading errors?
Voice leading refers to the interaction between multiple musical lines in a composition. There are some common errors to watch out for that can undermine the success of the music. Unresolved tendency tones, leading tones, and sevenths can leave the composition feeling incomplete.
Do chordal sevenths resolve up?
Chordal 7ths like to either resolve downward to the next tone in the key, downward chromatically, or be held as a common tone. If you want it to resolve downward to the next scale tone, to C# in this case, you could make the chords C#m(7), B9, A(M7), or F#m(7).
What is vii music theory?
The triad built on the subtonic note is called the subtonic chord. In a minor key, it is often written as “VII”, the flat symbol being often omitted by some theorists because the subtonic note appears in the natural minor scale. The flat symbol is used for the major scale because the subtonic is a non-diatonic note.
What kind of voice leading is there in harmony?
Approaching harmony from a non-Schenkerian perspective, Dmitri Tymoczko nonetheless also demonstrates such “3+1” voice leading, where “three voices articulate a strongly crossing-free voice leading between complete triads […], while a fourth voice adds doublings,” as a feature of tonal writing.
Which is the best definition of voice leading?
Voice leading. Voice leading (or part writing) is the linear progression of individual melodic lines ( voices or parts) and their interaction with one another to create harmonies, typically in accordance with the principles of common-practice harmony and counterpoint. These principles are codified into “rules” for pedagogical purposes.
What’s the voice leading in Bach’s Little Prelude?
A modern perspective on voice leading in mm. 3-7 of J. S. Bach’s Little Prelude in E minor, BWV 941. From the last chord of each measure to the first chord of the next, all melodic movements (excepting those in the bass) are conjunct; inside each measure, however, octave shifts account for a more complex parsimonious voice leading.
What are the rules for voice leading in music?
“Voice leading” is about how each note connects to the next one, in one voice part. Leaps of a seventh are NOT allowed. In major keys, diminished/augmented melodic intervals are NOT recommended. Augmented 2nds and 4ths are NOT allowed.