OVERALL

CONCERNS AND STRATEGIES REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU ARE WRITING [FOR TONAL MUSIC..]

1. Don’t compose left to right
a. Get a big picture first!
i. Compose from the bird’s eye à the details
ii. Go from the forest to the trees to the branches to the leaves.
b. Know where you are going
c. Compose the end, then write towards it
2. We want to know where we are at all times
3. We want to avoid aimless harmonic wandering
4. We want to avoid static harmonic repetition
5. We reinforce meaningful intuitive choices by providing ourselves with a structural framework
that is grammatically well-formed
a. We need a script – a way of representing the material
i. Conventional western music notation, in our case
ii. Clearly notating pitch and rhythm, and the interaction between lines
b. We need a vocabulary
i. A scale
ii. Types of chords
1. Primary chords [i.e., diatonic]
2. Secondary chords [i.e., chromatic]
iii. Rhythmic durations
iv. Notions of “consonance” and “dissonance”
v. Embellishing tones
vi. Motives…
c. We need grammar structures [how to string them together and voice them]
i. Meter [the framework of rhythm]
1. Organization of beats into measures [duple, triple, quadruple meter]
2. Subdivision of beats into sub-beats [simple and compound meter]
3. Identification of strong and weak beats
ii. Key areas [the framework within which harmony functions]
1. Modulation strategies [pivot, phrase, chromatic, common-tone]
iii. The TPDT model [the framework of harmony]
1. Notion of “function”
2. Notions of “progression,” “stasis,” and “retrogression”
3. Other “idioms”
a. Sequences
b. Prolongation progressions
c. Cadences
iv. Rules for governing melodic / harmonic consonance and dissonance
1. Voice-leading rules
2. Ideas about proper motion
3. Resolution of dissonances
v. Phrase design
1. Lengths of phrases
2. Design of repeated melodic / harmonic elements
3. Notions of exposition and transition
4. Layout of cadences
6. We need an understanding of the instruments for which we are writing.
7. Every line must be as beautiful as we can make it

We aim for no less than the perfect marriage of intellect and sensuousness

 WRITING A CHORALE [MORE STUFF]

1. Pick a text
a. Analyze the text
i. Where are the clauses? The pauses in speech?
1. These are places for cadences
ii. What are the emphasized syllables of the text?
1. These will go on strong beats within the meter
iii. Does the text suggest any other musical things you can do?
1. Should it be in Major or minor?
2. Should there be a lot of strange chromatic harmonies, or should it be
mostly diatonic?
3. Is there a way the melody can reflect the meaning of the words?
2. Write a melodic line that fits the text
a. Mostly stepwise motion
i. A balance between steps and leaps
b. Should have a sense of direction
c. Make sure that you decide what kind of cadences you will use, and ensure that the
melodic note at the cadence fits in the cadence you’ve chosen.
3. Choose harmonies that fit the melody
a. Decide how many different chords you want to create in a measure
b. Look at each melody note, and make a list of all the chords with which you could
harmonize it:
i. What are the possible chords?
1. Treat it as the root of a chord
rd
2. Treat it as the 3 of a chord
th
3. Treat it as the 5 of a chord
th
4. Treat it as the 7 of a chord
ii. Remember that you can:
1. Treat the melody tone as an embellishing tone
2. Treat it as part of a secondary dominant, secondary leading tone
chord, etc.
4. Use the TPDT model to decide which chords, out of all the possibilities, are the best chords to
use in your harmonization:
a. Remember that:
i. You want to establish the key, so some tonic - dominant - tonic action might be
good near the beginning.
ii. You want to use a mix of Tonic, Pre-dominant, and Dominant functioning
harmonies.
1. Too much T – D – T – T – D – T, etc. makes the progression sound stuck
in the mud.
2. Too many predominants – unguided by good voice-leading / bass line
– will sound like aimless wandering
iii. Repeating a chord, but in a different inversion or voicing, is a perfectly
acceptable thing to do. However, avoid repeating the same harmony more
than 2 or 3 times, or else the harmony will not sound like a progression.
b. Start with phrases
i. What key will each phrase be in? Will the first phrase modulate? Does the
second phrase begin with a direct modulation?




 c. Choose the cadences / cadential progressions
i. For each clause in your chorale, choose the cadence chords first.
1. [T] – PDT = authentic or deceptive cadence
2. [T] – PT = plagal cadence
3. [T] – PD = half cadence
d. Then, choose / compose your way toward the cadences
i. Start the first phrase with a tonic chord.
1. Or, if you like, you can begin with a “pick-up chord” [the dominant, the
subdominant, etc.]
ii. How will you “expand” the initial tonic phase of the TPDT model for each
phrase?
1. By “embedding” another cadential progression “inside” of it:
a. TPDT – PDT
2. By using “prolongation progressions”
a. “Neighbor Progressions”
i. TPT – PDT
ii. TDT – PDT
iii. TPTDT – PDT
1
b. “passing progressions ”
i
i. TPT – PDT
i
ii. TDT – PDT
i [i]
iii. TPT DT – PDT
3. Can you fill the initial T with a harmonic sequence?
a. Descending 3rds?

T ------------------------------- P D T
I à vi à IV à ii à V à I --- IV à V à I

b. Descending 5ths?

T ---------------------------- P D T
I à IV à vii à iii à vi --- ii à V à I


c. Ascending 2nds?

T -------------------------------------------- P D T
6 6 6
I à [vi ] à ii à [vii˚ ] à iii à [I ] --- IV à V à vi

4.
Write free harmonies
a. Avoiding retrogressions [D à PD]
b. Don’t have too many PD in a row without something giving a
sense of direction
5. Voice your harmonies in SATB setting
a. Notate the soprano melody
b. Next, voice the bass line
c. Then fill in the inner voices
6. Adorn your chorale, tastefully, with embellishing tones
a. The more embellishing tones you add in each voice, the closer the chorale will come to
being “counterpoint”


T = Tonic chord in a different inversion
1 i
 Step 1: Choose a text, analyze it

Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise him all creatures here below
Praise him above, ye heavenly hosts
Praise father, son, and holy ghost


Cadence points: Type of Cadence:

Flow Imperfect Authentic Cadence
Below Half Cadence
Hosts Perfect Authentic Cadence
Ghost Perfect Authentic Cadence

Emphasized syllables

God [whom] [Ble-] Flow
Him [crea-] [here] -low
Him [-bove] [Heav-] Hosts
Fa- Son Ho- Ghost

1. I’m going to put the emphasized syllables in the weighted pockets of the meter.
2. Praise = pick-up notes. The stress is placed on the second word of each sentence [it is the object
of the initial verb].
3. Some of the accented syllables are more accented than others when I speak the line. Take note.
a. Not going to hammer the middle stressed words, because it will make the phrase sound
clunky, leaden, excessively weighted

I notice some suggestive aspects of the language of the text:

4 Praises
• An opening statement
• 2 Statements
o 1 directed at the mortal people “below”
o 1 directed at the supernatural creatures “above”
• A closing statement telling us who to praise 3 things [a list, from biggest to smallest]
o Father
o Son
o Holy Ghost












 2
Step 2: Design a melody to fit the text

1. I choose 4/4 [S, w, s, w]
2. Like Bach, I’m using fermatas to counteract the design of the meter and force sustained cadences
rd
on the 3 beats, which allows me to place the upbeats [“Praise”…] as upbeats in the meter,
consistently.
3. Mostly using quarter notes. Mostly stepwise motion.
4. Text painting:
a. “Blessings flow” – melody gushes up
b. “Here below” melody moves down
c. Father, son, and holy ghost outline thirds, and make a little “genuflecting” motion.
rd th
5. The B on flow can be the 3 of a I chord [my IAC], the A on “-low” can be the 5 of my V chord
[HC], the Gs on “hosts” and “ghost” can be the root of my I chords [PAC / PAC]
6. The melody is singable, has a sense of direction.
rd
a. The notes in each of my cadences spell out B – A – G [the 3 leading down to the tonic],
a melodic figure which is repeated again, on the local level, in the last bar [“Holy ghost”]


















2
This is not my melody. It’s a well-known hymn. Just using it as an example. When I see “me” or “my” I’m
th
pretending to be the author of this melody. The composer of this melody is likely a 16 century French
composer named Louis Bourgeois.
Step 3: Choosing harmonies that fit the melody

1. Start at the phrase level
a. My first phrase will be in G Major. I’m not going to modulate.
2. Write the cadence[s]:
a. I want an imperfect authentic cadence [which I get from my melody note], so I’m going
to choose I for “flow” and V for “-ssings.”
3. Compose toward the cadence:
a. I can start “PRAISE GOD” by:
i. IV à I [a plagal motion, wherein the G is a common tone. The progression
pushes the emphasis onto the word God, in the downbeat of the next
measure].
6
ii. I à I [if I want to just cut to the chase and say “we’re in G Major”]
iii. There are other possibilities, but they basically involve swimming in
predominants. I want God to be on the tonic.
iv. I choose the first option
b. FROM
i. Can’t choose vii˚, since it cannot resolve correctly to the tonic
ii. V is an option
iii. iii is an option [best if I can push toward the dominant, through IV if I choose
this
7
iv. I makes no sense. Bach doesn’t write tonic seventh chords – since the tonic is
th
supposed to be tonally stable, and making it a 7 chord transforms it into a
dissonance that must be resolved.
th 7
v. Could choose to harmonize the F# as the 5 of V /vi, since I can harmonize the
following e as the root of vi. If I do so, I’m giving the word “from” a really
special color…Is there reason to do so?
vi. I choose option 3, since it helps me solve the next 2 chords also.
c. WHOM
i. I’m going to go with IV.
ii. I’ve set myself up to lead the initial T toward the D by means of walking it up
from the mediant [an embellished “third-divider progression,” if you want to be
nerdy about it]
1. IV à I à iii à IV à V
d. ALL
i. I choose V [see the last point]

e. BLE –
i. I’m just coming off a V chord [dominant], so:
1. I or vi would be fine, since they are Tonic functioning harmonies
 2. IV would be less awesome, since it would constitute a retrogression.
7 th
ii. I can’t choose ii since the melody would contain the 7 of the chord, which [as
th th
the 7 of a 7 chord] has to resolve down by step. But as you can see, it can’t.
7
iii. Can’t choose V /IV because, similarly, it can’t resolve to IV [since there is no a-
7
natural in a IV chord in G Major. Can’t harmonize it as vii˚ /iii either, since it
can’t go to iii.
iv. I choose to harmonize it with vi. Why?

Because reasons.

f. –SSINGS
i. I have already chosen the last two chords, because they are part of my
cadence. Because it is an authentic cadence, the last two chords must be V and
I.
g. FLOW
i. See f.

SO:

IV à I à iii à IV à V à vi à V à I


Step 4: Voice your chorale in SATB setting

Start with the bass line!

1. Notice, I’ve notated the melody in the soprano [stems up, to make room for the alto; stems
down]. I’ve also notated the bass on the bottom staff [stems down, to make room for the tenor;
stems up].
2. All the chords are in root position. They needn’t be, but I could create a nice smooth bass line
doing it, so I did.
3. Notice the contrary motion between the soprano and bass.










Next, fill in the inner voices:

1. There are some strange voicing choices at the end of this example.
a. The leap from D à G in the melody, made for some problems.
b. If I want to have a full e-minor chord, I could put an E4 in the alto [the slight range-
crossing would not be the worst thing in the world], setting up a B in the tenor.
i. Would be fine.
ii. BUT if I proceed to A in the tenor, so that my alto can double the soprano in
3rds [F#]; then I create parallel 5ths between the tenor and bass on beats 1 and
rd
2 of the 3 measure.
c. I tried to keep the range areas of the alto and soprano separate, by having the alto
ascend to B [leaving room for G in the tenor]. This created parallel 5ths with the
between bass and alto from m2 beat 4, to measure 3 beat 1. So I make her descend to G
instead.
rd
i. This causes me to either triple the 3 , or double the root. In either case, there
th th
is no room for the 5 of the chord [which I had to omit]. It’s ok to omit the 5
rd
of a triad. You just can’t omit the root or 3 , since they identify the root and
quality of the chord.
ii. I doubled the root in the tenor, which creates a nice parallel motion with the
th
soprano, and leads from the 6 scale degree to the tonic at the cadence in the
tenor.
iii. Kept the alto on D at the end, so I could have a full chord
















Step 5: Adorn your chorale with embellishing tones

It’s at this step that we can use the chorale to create something that moves toward “counterpoint” in the
sense that you see it in instrumental music: “florid” counterpoint.

We can do this by heavily embellishing the chorale to create a “figurated” chorale. Doing so may displace
some of the rhythms, causing the harmony to dissolve into a pile of florid lines. Don’t worry, if you do it
right, it should still be there.

Let’s start by just adding some simple embellishing tones [not going too florid]:

Soprano:
1. A lower neighbor note in measure 1
2. In measure 2, I’ve added two embellishing tones at the same time:
a. A chordal skip [from D to F#], which I filled in with:
b. A passing tone [E]
c. Could also think of this as a “diminution” – i.e., replacing a note / notes with another
figure that does the same thing for the harmony, but is more elaborate.
d. Notice that I can create more spaces for myself to add in embellishing tones, by using
quicker note values within the space of a beat.

Alto:
1. In measure 3, beat 1: A chordal skip [I can use that to open up a little space, and get that missing
chord tone I had to omit before]
2. I did the same thing I had done in the soprano voice before [the same notes, even], on the
second beat of measure 3: a diminution. Again, it helps fill that big leap from the original.

Tenor:
1. Measure 2, beat 2: passing tone
2. Measure 2, beats 3-4: I created a 4-3 suspension against the bass.
a. ATTN: I’ve ended up doubling the leading tone, but since the F# resolves in contrary
motion, I successfully avoided writing parallel octaves.
3. Measure 3, beats 1 and 2: I’m basically moving in parallel motion with the alto voice here. This is
unproblematic, since I’m writing parallel imperfect consonances [3rds, then 6ths].

Bass:
1. I chose not to write anything. Though I could have put a passing tone in the first beat of measure
2, etc.
 LET’s GO FULL ON BEYONCÉ !

NOTICE:

1. The “diminution” is a most useful conceptual tool to get you from chorale to florid counterpoint!
a. Substituting a different melodic figure for one in the original line, that does the same
thing harmonically, and melodically.
b. Think of it as “chunking” together a bunch of embellishing tones into an embellishing
figure that outlines the harmony.
2. I changed some of the voicings of the original, because I discovered better ones as I added more
diminutions
3. In Measure 2, beat 3: there is a new harmony in there that arises out of the diminutions [a V 6/5
of V]. Similarly, the bass line’s “chromatic passing tone” on the second half of beat 4 [connecting
the D to the E in the next measure] – became a V 6/5 of vi.
a. With some cleverness, a chromatic passing tone can become a secondary dominant – a
separate harmony.
4. Filling in parallel chordal skips between 2 voices, with parallel passing tones [as long as they don’t
form perfect consonances], is a good effect.
5. The “voice exchange” is also a really helpful tool in motivating harmonies.
a. Example: in a chord CEG:
i. Alto goes from G à E
ii. Tenor goes from E à G
iii. Can fill both with a passing tone [F#]
6. Note that the melody in measure 2, beat 3 and 4 has changed pretty drastically. That’s because I
figured out I could do this nice melodic sequence in the soprano
7. Notice the parallel dissonances in the tenor and bass in measure 2, second half of beat 2 [A/B à
B/A].
a. This sort of thing happens in Bach also, but it is rare.
i. It is on a weak beat.
ii. The two lines have a very strong sense of direction that causes us to excuse the
parallel dissonances.
iii. The tempo feel is relatively fast, so it is unlikely to draw our attention, since
both notes arise from embellishing tones.




Let’s just look at the embellishing tones in the phrase now, and the harmonic analysis:

Here’s a list of the embellishing tones, in order of appearance:

The two bracketed boxes are where we added two new chords.

Soprano:
1. Measure 1:
a. Neighbor note
b. Incomplete upper neighbor note to the G in the next bar
2. Measure 2:
a. Consonant 6 – 5 suspension [right on the second beat of measure 2, G à F#]
th
b. The dashed circled in the second half of beat 3: G is a passing tone [or the 7 of V 65 of
V]
c. Same thing for the A at the end of the measure.
3. Measure 3:
a. Neighbor note
b. Chordal skip
th th
c. Passing tone [or the 7 , if you analyze the chord as a dominant 7 chord, rather than as
a triad].

Alto:
1. Measure 1:
a. The C is a chordal skip
2. Measure 2:
a. The B is a chordal skip, followed by a passing tone
b. The D and E in beat 3 of the second measure is, likewise, a chordal skip followed by a
passing tone.
3. In measure 3:
a. Neighbor note
b. Passing tone
c. Passing tone
d. Chordal skip



Tenor:
1. Measure 1:
a. Chordal skip
2. Measure 2:
a. Neighbor note
b. Neighbor note
c. Passing tone
d. 4-3 suspension
3. Measure 3:
a. Chordal skip
b. Escape tone
c. Passing tone
d. Chordal skip

Bass:
1. Measure 2
a. Neighbor note
b. Passing tone
c. Neighbor note
d. Neighbor note
2. Measure 3
a. [Chromatic] passing tone
b. Chordal skip


IN CONCLUSION:

1. LEARN S**T!
a. Know the functions of chords
b. Know how to write and recognize embellishing tones
c. Know how to use the TPDT model
d. Know how to recognize and resolve dissonances
i. Chordal dissonances [7ths and tritones]
ii. Melodic dissonances [embellishing tones]
2. PLAN THE BIG PICTURE, AND THE ENDS
a. Don’t compose from left to right, top to bottom
b. Start with a text!
c. Write the end before the beginning
d. Write your way toward the end
3. WHEN YOU WRITE MUSIC, YOU ARE PRACTICING WRITING MUSIC
a. Sounds obvious, and yet…
b. If you want things to feel more natural and intuitive, do them a lot.
c. Nothing will feel natural or intuitive if you only do it once, or run away from it.
d. The problem is not the theoretical language. The problem is you not being any good at
it.
4. Y.O.L.O., so P.R.A.C.T.I.C.E.
a. You Only Live Once, so you better:
b. Practice wRiting A bunch of Chorales To Invest in your own Competence and Excellence