4 part writing

[santucci218]

can somebody explain 4 part writing to me? For music theory class i have to write a 4 part vocal piece, but there are some rules.

#1. Correct spacing between each part.
- Between bass and tenor any interval
- Between tenor, alto, and soprano no more than one octave.

#2. Double the root if needed, than the 5th if needed, but try not to double the 3rd.

#3. Maintain common tones between chords.

#4. The rest of the parts must move in a stepwise manner.

#5. No parallel octaves, 5ths or unison.

Key - C Maj

Chord Progression as follows -

I VII ii V I

What in the world do i do dudes?

Thank you much, Paul S.

[jaebee]

you need to write in harmony, ie, building chord tones, in this case 4 part ones, over that progression, without using root-octave, 5th-5thoc, and repeating the 3rd.

pretty easy stuff, i would suggest first write out your c maj scale

c d ef g a b

the progression is 1 7 2 5 1

if you copied the capital and lowercase roman numerals correctly than that 7 is going to be dominant as opposed to half dim. like it should be.

so for the I you could arrpegiate a cmaj7 (4 tone) chord

c e g b

then arrpegiate a 7dom, with a b13th maybe for flavor
b d# a g(oct)

etc.

just make sure to stay relatively diatonic, and just mix it up

[santucci218]

im so confused

its in the key of C where in the world did the D# come from?

and a chord with B D# A and G doesnt follow my rules because A-G is more than a 5th interval.

[DocBop]

Originally Posted by santucci218

im so confused

its in the key of C where in the world did the D# come from?

and a chord with B D# A and G doesnt follow my rules because A-G is more than a 5th interval.

Read what he was saying... "then arrpegiate a 7dom, with a b13th maybe for flavor". He is suggesting on the V7 chord (in key of C it would be G7) to add a b13th for more color. He technically spelled the chord wrong and wrote #5 instead of a b13 (enharmonicly the same note.)

Four part writing means harmonizing a melody with three additional tones. So you can write triads and double one of the notes, or if you know your chord up to 7th's can write four voices. The important thing in doing this is the voice leading, smooth transitions from one chord to the next. This type of working really needs to be done on a keyboard, even doing it on guitar will suck (I know too well from personal experience.)

I would say quick and dirty approach would be take the melody they gave you, or write a melody if you have to do the whole thing. Then with the melody come up with some nice root movements for the bass voice. With melody and bass all you have to do is fill in the inner voices.

If you have trouble coming up with the bass line for the melody another trick is look at the melody note. Then figure out what four part chords would that note be in. For example in Key of C major and melody note is a E. E would be the root of Emi7, 3rd of CMa7, 5th of Ami7, and 7th of FMaj7. So pick one of those chords, but need to consider the chord your coming from for a strong root movement.

Find a piano and get to work.

[mutedeity]

Originally Posted by santucci218

Chord Progression as follows -

I VII ii V I

Originally Posted by santucci218

im so confused

its in the key of C where in the world did the D# come from?

Since the VII chord is wirtten as major, rather than being a half diminished chord, the D# will be the third of that chord. Also since this doesn't imply any change to the relative 7th we can assume that this makes it a dominant, since the 7 is already minor relative to b.

Originally Posted by jaebee

then arrpegiate a 7dom, with a b13th maybe for flavor
b d# a g(oct)

Scratch my last comment anyone who read it. So you are omitting the 5th. I might point out that the 5th of that chord would be f#.