Keyboard Style Harmony

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FOUR-PART HARMONY

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Learning to connect chords smoothly and idiomatically is a crucial part of your early musical training. In TH101, we will compose four-part harmony with two complementary methods: “chorale” style and “key-board” style. This handout introduces both and then focuses on keyboard style, which we will use for most of our assignments.

In chorale style, each of the four voices (SATB) is independently notated and stemmed, on a grand staff: S and A are notated together on the top staff, T and B together on the bottom. In this format, stem-direction helps to differentiate the voices: S and T are always stemmed upward, while A and B are always stemmed downward, as show below in J. S. Bach’s setting of the famous hymn tune “Ein feste Burg” (”A Mighty Fortress”):

The biggest limitation of keyboard style is that the four voices have far less independence than in chorale style. This is because the inner voices are always “stuck to” the topmost voice, both rhythmically and regis-trally. The kinds of four-part settings found in Bach’s chorales, for instance, would be impossible in keyboard style, as they require the tenor and alto voices to move entirely independently:

By contrast, keyboard style groups the top three voices on one staff, leaving the bass by itself on the bottom staff. Stem direction still matters: the top voice is stemmed upward, while the inner voices are stemmed downward together, as shown here:

CHORALE VS. KEYBOARD STYLE

PROS and CONS OF KEYBOARD STYLE

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However, keyboard style offers many advantages—especially to the novice:

• It lets us focus on the most important contrapuntal relations, those between the outer voices. (In this respect, keyboard style is like a first-species exercise with inner-voice “filler.”

• By limiting the range of the upper voices, it encourages efficient, smooth voice leading in many situations.

• It makes illegal parallels between three pairs of voices (SA, ST, AT) easier to see.

• It typically puts the RH in one of only a few standard configurations—or “handshapes”—allowing you to target likely errors more efficiently.

As in species counterpoint, parallel perfect fifths and octaves are forbidden, between any pair of voices. However, parallel fourths are fine (!!!); indeed, you will use them often.

PROS and CONS OF KEYBOARD STYLE (cont’d.)

VOICE-LEADING RULES AND GUIDELINES

PARALLEL PERFECT INTERVALS

When the outer voices move by similar motion, the soprano should move by step. If the soprano leaps, the result is “direct” or “hidden” octaves, a sound that composers traditionally avoided. Inner voices are note bound by this rule.

DIRECT (or “HIDDEN”) OCTAVES

Whenever possible—which is almost always!—use complete chords. The only acceptable way to leave a chord incomplete is to omit its chordal fifth. Your handouts on resolving V7 to I offer several scenarios in which incomplete chords are acceptable and even necessary.

COMPLETE VS. INCOMPLETE CHORDS

Unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise—usually for reasons of sculpting a nice melody—it is wise to connect your chords as smoothly as possible in the right hand, moving voices by step (or not at all!) whenever possible.

SMOOTH CONNECTIONS

All else being equal, it is wise to move your hands in contrary, rather than similar motion. This will ensure that you avoid the most common opportunities for parallel P5s/P8s. When moving between 5/3 chords a step apart (e.g., IÅii, or VÅvi), this is especially important!

CONTRARY MOTION

The other limitation of keyboard style is that it is difficult to sing from. This is because (1) the inner voices are bound to the melody, they often range much too high for male voices; and (2) the inner voices also tend to leap more often—and farther—than in chorale style.

Working in keyboard style can be less overwhelming than chorale style, since the motion of the inner voices is in large part dependent on the melody. This means that there are fewer options and thus fewer opportuni-ties for mistakes. Still, there are a number of important guidelines and rules to be kept in mind:

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• 5₃-chords (i.e., root-position triads)

TRIAD HANDSHAPES

When playing triads or seventh chords in keyboard style, the right hand will tend to fall into one of 13 “hand-shapes.” These, in turn, fall into four families:

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• 6₃-chords (i.e., first-inversion triads)

• -chords (i.e., first-inversion triads)

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• -chords (i.e., second-inversion triads)

ONE NOTE WILL DOUBLE THE BASS VOICE ONE NOTE WILL DOUBLE THE BASS VOICE ONE NOTE WILL DOUBLE THE BASS VOICE

ONE NOTE DOUBLES THE BASS VOICE NO TONES IN COMMON WITH BASS

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NO TONES IN COMMON WITH BASS (chordal root is in RH)

• 6₅-chords (i.e., first-inversion seventh chords) NO TONES IN COMMON WITH BASS (chordal root is in RH)

• 4₃-chords (i.e., second-inversion seventh chords) NO TONES IN COMMON WITH BASS

(chordal root is in RH)

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• -chords (i.e., incomplete seventh chords in root position)

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(chordal root is in RH) NO TONES IN COMMON WITH BASS

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• 75-chords (i.e., root-position seventh chords) 3

• -chords (i.e., third-inversion seventh chords)

These are used mainly with first-inversion triads. They ensure that the chordal third (in the bass) is not doubled. They consist of a fourth and/or a fifth.

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These, the most common handshapes, combine two thirds or a third and a fourth. They are used for five types of chords:

NEUTRAL

These are used mainly with first-inversion seventh chords.

DISSONANT A

These are used for two types of chords (see below). They are recognizable by their dissonant seventh or second.

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HANDSHAPE DEMONSTRATION

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

On the next page, you’ll find a color-coded demonstration of handshapes used to realize a bassline in keyboard style. Triad-style handshapes are shown in green; neutrals are shown in blue; and dissonants are shown in red/orange. A few things to notice here:

Notice that two of the neutral handshapes use two, rather than three notes. This is fine. Indeed, if you have several 6/3 chords in a row, you may use a string of such handshapes, effectively reducing from a 4-voice texture to a 3-voice one.

NEUTRAL HANDSHAPES IN 3 VOICES

Most of the neutral and dissonant handshapes have a gap of a fifth in them. When such handshapes are used properly, the bass note will always be the “missing” note that would divide that fifth into two thirds. (On the next page, look at the last chord in m. 1: see how the fifth F–C could be “divided” into thirds by an A? See the bass? It’s A. That’s what I mean.)

RELATION OF RH TO LH

When you realize a 3-note chord in four voices, one note will appear twice. With 5/3 and 6/4 chords, the doubled note should always be the same as the BASS voice. (I.e., the bass note will also appear somewhere in the RH.) If you use a triad handshape for such chords, the correct doubling is guaran-teed.

But with 6/3 chords, the correct doubling varies. This chart—which applies in many but not all situa-tions—will help you in the coming weeks:

DOUBLING in TRIADS

CHORD DOUBLE HANDSHAPE

• As predicted, triad handshapes are the most common (11 out of 17 chords).

• Triad handshapes are used not just for triads, but also for root position seventh chords (see the ii7 chord in m. 4) and third-inversion seventh chords: notice how the bass under the vi chord (m.3) moves down by step, producing a 4/2-chord, while the RH remains stationary!

• The same Dissonant B handshape, on the same notes (!), is used in the first and last bars to realize a dominant 4/3 chord AND an incomplete root-position V7. (The difference is that the “missing” chordal fifth appears in the bass voice in bar 1, but not in bar 4.)

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TRIAD HANDSHAPE DEMONSTRATION NEUTRAL DISSONANT A DISSONANT B

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