Four-part harmony

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Genevan psalter: Old 124th.[1] Playⓘ

The term "four-part harmony" refers to music written for four

musical parts can give a different note for each chord
of the music.

The four main voices are typically labelled as soprano (or treble and countertenor),[2] alto (contralto, countertenor or mezzo), tenor, and bass. Because the human voice has a limited range, different voice types are usually not able to sing pitches that lie outside of their specific range.[3]

The effort required to perform four-part harmony varies greatly. Pieces written in such a style can be usually executed by a single keyboard player, a group of 4 instruments (or singers), or even a large choir with multiple singers per part.

In European classical music

BWV 347
)
See also: Counterpoint

In the

perfect intervals (fourths, fifths and octaves), repeats of the same interval between the two voices (also known as moving in parallels
) are almost always avoided.

Another rule concerns

perfect cadences. In such cadences, the leading tone (the seventh scale degree) must resolve step-wise to the tonic. That is, the voice that plays the leading tone must resolve up to the tonic, and if the chord is a dominant seventh chord
, the subdominant should resolve to the mediant.

Another concern of four-part writing is tessitura. Since the music is usually written for four-part choirs, each part should be able to be sung by the appropriate section of the choir, thus it should remain in the appropriate pitch range. As well as that, each voice should be easy to sing, meaning that large intervals within the same voice are to be avoided, instead favoring step-wise motion. Voices should also not overlap: the pitch sung by the alto should not be higher than that of the soprano, and so on for the other voices. Voices should also remain suitably close to each other, usually within an octave of each adjacent voice, except for the bass.

These rules were generally followed during the common practice period. Nowadays, they are usually taught in music theory classes, but most compositions follow less strict rules, if not outright disregarding them.[4][5][6]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-07-294262-0
    .
  2. ISBN 978-1-56593-940-0
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1-877761-64-5
    .
  4. ^ "Basic Concepts of Four-Part Writing". Earlham College Music.
  5. ^ Smey, Dave. "Important Rules for 4-Part Progressions" (PDF). Dave Smey. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  6. ^ Williams, Victoria. "The Rules of Harmony". www.mymusictheory.com. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
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