The Craft of Tonal Counterpoint

Thomas Benjamin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9781135946623
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Mezzi di comunicazione e arti performative
• Subtopic: Teoria e gusto musicale

First Published in 2003. The Craft of Tonal Counterpoint is an introductory text to the analysis and composition of tonal counterpoint. Using examples from the music of J.S. Bach - the master of this style - the author takes students through a series of carefully graded, cumulative exercises that stress both analysis and writing. Benjamin covers chromaticism and fugal writing in exceptional detail. The exercises cover a wide range of formats, including error detection, linear pitch reduction, analysis and composition. The book also incorporates a 100-page anthology of scores, effective for analysis, in-class performance, and compositional models.

Chapter 1
Line and Other Elements of Style

Here are a number of melodies drawn from the instrumental works of Bach. Perform each one a number of times.¹

Ex. 1-1 Orchestral Suite in B minor, Rondeau

Ex. 1-2 French Suite V, Sarabande

Ex. 1-3 Brandenburg Concerto II, First Movement

Ex. 1-4 English Suite V, Passepied I

Ex. 1-5 Viola da Gamba Movement in G Major, Fourth Movement

Ex. 1-6 Orchestral Suite in C Major, Menuet I

Ex. 1-7 Violin Sonata in A Major, Second Movement

Ex. 1-8 Viola da Gamba Sonata in G Major, First Movement

Ex. 1-9 Partita I, Menuet I

Ex. 1-10 Viola da Gamba Sonata in D Major, Fourth Movement

Ex. 1-11 Partita I for Solo Violin, Courante

Ex. 1-12 Suite III for Solo Cello, Allemande

Ex. 1-13 Violin Sonata in A Major, First Movement

Shape; Tonal Framework; Ranee and Tessitura

Most effective musical lines are clearly shaped. Bach’s music derives much of its strength from being clearly directed toward melodic and harmonic goals. An effective melody makes a clear overall contour, which we can represent graphically as a line. The overall shape will normally seem balanced and in repose, with ascending curves balanced by descending curves; this will often be mirrored in the localized, bar-by-bar shapes. In short, the same shaping processes (gestures) often control all aspects of melodic structure when the music is of high quality.

Note in example 1-13 the tonally and metrically clear starting point, the swift rise to the tonic octave and the more gradual fall to the dominant note in a strong cadence. This is but one of many possible melodic shapes; you will have observed several others in the music at the beginning of this chapter. The climactic point may or may not be obvious in a given melody; it may be a low rather than a high note; it often occurs near the end of a phrase, with the line then falling quickly into a strong cadence (see especially exs. 1-2, 1-3, and 1-11). A climactic note may be emphasized by its length, height or depth, identity as a strong scale degree (such as tonic or dominant), metrical position, and by reiteration and return. Often it is approached by a leap from below, and may be a tied or dotted value (see ex. 1-13, m. 3). Following the main climactic note, there may be a secondary high point or two, and a scalar descent, as in ex. 1-13.

The tonal framework formed by the most emphasized low and high notes will tend to clarify the tonality. The framework of the excerpt above can be heard as e¹ to a², or a¹ to a², both emphasizing the key of A major. Typical tonal frameworks are:

There is often one note outside the framework, related as a neighbor note to the high or low pitch, as for example:

Ex. 1-14

Range is primarily a function of instrument and idiom, although melodies encompassing more than a twelfth (unless involving compound line) are quite rare. The tessitura (the “heart” or most often used portion of the range) is typically about an octave.

Your written work should (at the discretion of your instructor) be playable in two hands and conform to the range of Bach’s writing in the Well-Tempered Clavier, great C to C3,—that is, from two octaves below “middle C” to two octaves above it.

What will not be found here, or in any well-shaped music, are shapes that seem aimless, flat, too wide-ranging, or jagged. One rarely finds unidirectional contours such as

or

, steep or jagged outlines like

or narrow, oscillating patterns such as

(which arise from overemphasis on one pitch or one part of the range). These shapes may be made to work on a localized scale only if incorporated in a larger-scale directed contour. For example, mm. 3-5 of example 1-13 oscillate around a², but only as an incidental detail in a clear overall shape.

Exercises

1. Perform and critique the newly composed “melodies” on p. 34 in terms of shape and tonal framework.
2. Identify the range and tonal framework in examples 1-1 to 1-12. Which scale degrees are involved in these frameworks? Identify the tessitura (this is often a somewhat subjective judgment).
3. Identify the climactic moments in melodies selected from examples 1-1 to 1-12. Discuss how these are achieved (approached, emphasized, left). Represent the contour of each of these melodies with a line drawing, and compare the contours of several melodies.
4. Perform in class other lines by Bach, perhaps from works you already know or are preparing for performance, and discuss them in terms of shape and framework, as well as performance-practice issues.

Structural Pitches

Sample Analysis (of Example 1-13) ²

Ex. 1-15 Violin Sonata in A Major, First Movement

There is no question that some pitches are perceived as more fundamental than others, as more “structural.” We can easily show these hierarchies of pitch in some such graphic way as in example 1-15. It should be emphasized that such reductions are to some extent subjective, based as they are on each individual’s hearing of and thinking about a given work. Awareness of the directed shapes formed by the structural pitches is important to our understanding of the shaping processes in music, and our ability to hear, perform, and write musically.

The shapes formed ...