The Nine Types Explained & Imitative Counterpoint.
Melodic Writing: Using Non-chord Tones and dissonance in tandem with chord tones to compose more expressive and interesting Melodic Lines
Let’s first start with a very basic framework of 2-part counterpoint or simply melody and bass-line
There are two things that we should take notice of here.
1. The melodic rhythm is whole notes throughout the entire 8 bars. This is so static that the two lines completely lack all independence and it doesn’t sound particularly musical. There is nothing exciting for your ear to latch on to.
2. Moving from measure 4 to 5 we have a Direct Fifth and from measure 7 to 8 a Direct Octave. These are heavily avoided in composition because they have a very bare, open sound and you also lose the independence of the different melodic lines. (They are acceptable at cadences because that is typically a place where you want everything to come together rather than remain independent. They are also acceptable where independence between multiple lines is not wanted).
So how do we make our lines more melodic and interesting?
This is where our use of Non-Chord tones and Dissonance come in!
Here is our list of Non-Chord Tone possibilities:
Passing Tones (P.T.): These are notes that fill in the gap between two chord tones and fall on a weak beat or weak part of a beat. They approach and resolve in the same direction. You can also have Double Passing Tones which are simply 2 notes instead of 1. Less common are Accented Passing Tones (Acc P.T.) which occur on stronger beats.
2. Neighbor Tones (N.T.): This is a decoration or embellishment of a note by playing the note above or below on a weak beat and then returning to the original note. There is also a Double Neighbor Tone (D.N.T.) which begins the same way as the Neighbor Tone by playing a step above or below, but then it leaps by third in the opposite direction before it resolves by step back to the original note. Another way to think about D.N.T. is basically playing both neighbor tones one after the other, the tone a step above and the tone a step below before returning to the original note.
3. Suspension (Sus.): This is when you hold a chord tone over a change of harmony and then resolve it down by step on a weaker beat or a weaker portion of a beat. The held note is often tied over the change, but not always.
4. Retardation (R.): This is the same as a suspension except that the Non-Chord tone resolves upward on a weaker beat instead of downward.
5. Anticipation (Ant.): These occur on a weaker beat or weaker portion of a beat and are essentially just a note that arrives early, sort of jarring our ear's expectation. Anticipations are most common in cadences.
6. Escape Tones (E.T.): These are approached by step and then resolved by a leap of a 3rd in the opposite direction and are commonly found on weaker beats or a weaker portion of a beat.
7. Appogiatura (App): These are accented notes that are approached by leap and resolved by step in the opposite direction.
8. Incomplete Neighbor Tones (I.N.T.): These notes are approached by leap and then resolve by step in the opposite direction and are resolved on a stronger beat.
9. Cambiata (C.): These notes are approached by step, then leap by a third in the same direction before resolving by step in the opposite direction.
Now that we’ve covered these Non-Chord techniques let’s apply them to our first example!
I have circled in Red and labeled all the Non-Chord Tones that were used. Notice that Passing Tones and Neighbor Tones are the most common and that the Direct Fifths and Octaves are now approached differently. Also, I didn't use every single type of N.C.T. as music is ultimately NOT just an academic exercise.
In measure 7, if you took out the Passing Tone ‘C' on the upbeat of beat 3 for a moment, then the only thing breaking up the Direct Octave is a movement of B to D which is a third. Generally speaking, interrupting a Direct Octave/Fifth with the interval of a 3rd is not enough to break the negative effect. The ear barely registers the movement of a 3rd and will still hear the Direct Octave/Fifth. The reason I left it, in this case, is because the one place that Direct Octaves/Fifths are acceptable is at a cadence because everything is coming to cessation, but this is something you do need to be aware of.
There is one more thing that is definitely worth discussing when writing contrapuntal lines and that is Imitation. Imitation can be anything from a strict, rule-based repetition such as a Canon or a Sequence, to a very loose imitation of an idea such as repeating the exact rhythmic structure of a motif in a different voice while using different notes or changing the intervals. This will help keep your composition cohesive by having multiple lines play either exact repeats or variations of a single motif. I’m going to cover Imitation, sequences, and Melodic Manipulation Techniques in a future episode, but here is are three examples of imitation to get you started.
The first example is a Literal Imitation. The motif plays in the first voice and is then repeated exactly the same way in the lower voice (down two octaves).
The second example is a Sequence. It’s the same motif just modulated up or down on a different chord. The modulation can be to anything. In my example, I modulated up a Whole-Step from the F- to a GMaj chord, but it could have been modulated to any chord you wish.
Notice that an intervalic adjustment is made to fit the harmony. In the first example, the first two notes are the Root and the Minor third (Minor chord). In the sequence, it’s a Root and then a Major third (Major chord). Other than that small adjustment the sequence is the same. It’s just starting on a different Root.
In the final example, we have an Imitation that is modified. I took the original motif and inverted it. So instead of 16th notes moving downward, they are moving upward. They are also modulated to a different harmony (G7 instead of D-7). The last change is the two eighth notes. In the first motif, the two eighth notes move down a Fourth. In the imitation, after the inversion, the two eighth notes would move up a Fourth, but that would put us on an E over a G7 chord and I liked the B to D trapping moving to C in the next bar. It sounds more complete. So the last change to the motif is to Diminish that last interval from a Fourth to a Third.
If we take our original 2-part counterpoint example and apply some of these imitations as well as other Non-Chord Tone ideas we can arrive at something like this.
I've highlighted two imitations, can you find any others? How about our Non-Chord Tone techniques?
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