Four

Part Voice Leading

You might remember hearing about smooth voice leading when we learned about
chord inversions. The three guidelines were:
1. Keep common tones between chords
2. Move all other notes using stepwise motion where possible
3. Avoid parallel fifths and parallel octaves

These are two principles of what is called four part voice leading. Rather than
writing your chords in the bass staff and melody in the treble staff, there are four
voices split among a grand staff.


Soprano

Alto





Tenor
Bass




This is called an SATB score. The soprano and alto are always written in the treble
clef, and the tenor and bass are always written in the bass clef. Each voice
functions as an independent melody, but they line up vertically to create chords. In
order to do four-part writing successfully we need to think about our melody and
harmony rules at the same time!

1. Tendency tones: 7 !1 and 4 ! 3
2. Skips and leaps must be filled in stepwise in the opposite direction

These four parts correspond to the actual voice parts. Just like we referred to our
instrument range chart when we arranged for pep band, we need to consider
practical voice ranges when writing for SATB.











There are two ways we can arrange our chord tones in an SATB score:
Close structure: less than an octave between soprano and tenor

Open structure: more than an octave between soprano and tenor

Doubling

So far we have mostly been concerned with three-part voice leading with our chord
progressions. In order to play a three-note chord in four voices you must choose a
chord tone to double. Some notes are a better choice than others.

For maj/min triads:
1. Best choice: Double the root or fifth
2. Second best choice: Double the root or fifth
3. Third best choice: Double the third

For dim/aug triads: The root, third, or fifth are all equally okay!









5 Types of Motion

We can compare two voices (e.g. soprano and alto) to see how the parts move. There
are five types of motion:

Static Motion: Both notes that you are comparing stay the same
Oblique Motion: One of the pitches stays the same, while one moves
Similar Motion: Both move in same direction, but in different intervals (e.g. one
moves up a second and one moves up a third)
Contrary Motion: Both moving away from each other up or down the staff or
moving towards each other up or down the staff
Parallel Motion: Same direction, same interval

***Remember: which parallel intervals do we avoid???***

Rules of Four Part Voice Leading

1. Keep common tones where possible
2. Use stepwise motion where possible
3. Avoid parallel fifths and octaves
4. Resolve tendency tones
5. Skips/leaps must be filled by step in the opposite direction
6. Double the root or fifth where possible
7. Never double tendency tones
8. Avoid voice crossing (e.g. alto moving higher than soprano)


If this seems complicated to you, dont worry! We have been using most of these
rules all semester. This is just a new way of organizing them for the context of
writing for actual human voices. Just remember that, instead of melody and
accompaniment, each line is its own melody. When you put them together, the
harmony emerges.


Brainstorm with your group:
1. How will four-part voice leading help us in class?
2. How will it help you (personally) in other musical endeavors?
3. Why are the rules of four-part voice leading important?