Voice Leading & Harmonization

Four part vocal writing

  • Learn all aspects of your craft

    • Rhythm

    • Melody

    • Orchestration

    • Harmony

**Goal: Have melodies and accompaniments that flow

Voice Leading

  • the way in which specific voices of a chord move from one chord to another

  • Smoothest connection between two chords

  • Only necessary amount of movement in each voice to create a complete chord

  • Chords need to have all necessary notes to convey tonality in the chords they represent

    • Need root an third in major/ minor

    • Root third or secenth in secenth chord

    • Fifth is not necessary unless in augmented or diminished

Voice Leading for the real world

  • range

  • Doubling

  • Completeness of chords

  • Spacing

  • Voice crossing

Range

  • Generally in a comfortable range for the chosen range

  • Vocal ranges:

    • Soprano: C4-G5

    • Alto: G3-G5

    • Tenor: C3-G4

    • Bass: E2-C4

Doubling

  • Which notes you write more than once in a single chord

    • Triads have three notes + four voices= At least one note is doubled

  • ***Dont double the leading tone

  • ***Dont double the third

  • Try to double the root first, then the fifth

  • In 7th chords, double the root

Completeness of Chords

  • Complete chords as much as possible

  • Important notes need to be present

  • Major and Minor Triads = Root, 3rd

  • 5th can be omitted

9ths, 11ths, and 13ths

  • Root, third, seventh and highest extension

Why can we omit the 5th?

  • The mind can superimpose the tone because of the strength of its overtone over the root

Doubling and Completeness

  • Always have a root and a third

  • Try to have complete chords

  • Omit the root if necessary

  • Double the root

  • Dont double the leading tone- will lead to parallel octaves

Spacing

  • The way we distribute the different chord tones over the entire range of the instruments being used

  • Use the overtone series for spacing

  • Spacing (Closed/ open)

  • Closed position

    • Generally cannot fit any chord tones between the voices

    • Want to keep the tenor and bass seperate by a 5th

  • Open Position

    • Can generally fit another chord tone between the voices

Voice Crossing

  • dont cross voices, it just gets confusing

  • Not usually necessary

Melodic Motion

  • Creates or destroys voice independence

    • Different direction make them feel like individual melodies

    • Same direction feel like block chords

  • Can move up, down, or stay static

  • Four kinds of melodic motion: Contrary, oblique, similar, parallel

    • Contrary- Voices move in opposite directions

    • Oblique- One voice moves, the other stays the same

    • Similar- Voices move in the same direction by different intervals

      • Not allowed to move two fifths or octaves

    • Parallel- Voices moving in the same direction by the same interval

Parallel and Hidden 5ths/ octaves

  • When Voices move in parallel fifths, the sound tends to blend in one sound instead of a harmony

  • Lots of explination- just dont fuckin do it

  • Make attempt to avoid them

    • If you need to, keep it and keep going

    • don’t overthink it

Melodic Motion (cont.)

  • Use contrary and oblique as much as possible

  • When using parallel motion, stick to 3rds and 6ths