4 Part Harmony

[pianohenry]

For grade 7 theory, and for A2 music, one of the main things is 4 part harmony in the style of a bach chorale.

abrsm grade 7 is the easier one, because they give you the chords, you just fill them in, add in the passing notes, auxillary notes etc. etc.

but the A2 music, youre given just a melody line, and you have to harmonize the entire thing for 4 parts, in the style of a bach chorale.

Does anyone have any help on the method you would employ when doing this?

how do you know Which is the best chord to use?
how do you go about working the question?

i havent had much success so far, at grade 6 i would add in the base line, trying to aim for contrary motion in the outside parts, then fill in the middle parts. but again for the base line you need to use notes from the chords, so you need to know what chords youre using. how do you choose?

[mephisto]

First I am no expert but I have studied this subject in high-school with a teacher for about 2 monhts(you can learn this very fast).

1. First name the key of the piece.

2. Decide wich chords u have to use for each note of the melody. The prefeered progression is Tonic-Subdominant-Dominant-Tonic. Meaning if the piece is in C-major: C-F-G-C. This does of course not work every time. The progression T-D-S-T should be AVOIDED.

Tonics can be used on: The 1st note of the scale(c if the piece is in c major), the 3rd note(e if the piece is in c major) and the 5th note(g if the piece is in c major).

Subdominants can be used on: The 2nd note of the scale, 4th note and the 6th note.

Dominants can be used on: The 2nd note of the scale 5th note and the 7th note.

3. Write a bass line based on what you have learned so far.

4. Fill in the tenor and alt.

5. Check if you have made any mistake.

6. Make Bach proud.

And remember that the 7th note of the scale SHOULD lead to the 1st

There are many other "rules"; for instance you should NOT write parallel 5th and octaves. You have to get a teacher to tell you all of this.

Do always start and end a piece with the tonic.

[pianistimo]

theory workbooks show you step by step so you don't get confused over names of chords, etc.  'harmonic materials in tonal music' by paul harder is what i used.  it was great!  i still have it.  you can also go to the library and just check out and xerox copy the workpages (esp. if someone else has filled them in).  practicing writing things in yourself is very helpful.   

[dave santino]

Get a copy of Reimenschneider and study it. We're doing the harmony at the moment, and each week we'll be set an exercise by the teacher, and next week we'll hand them in and he'll mark them, then we'll go through it together as a class (there are 5 of us) and use Remenschneider as a reference if there are any really tricky cadences. I'v found that the heardest thing is not writing the harmony as such, that's pretty easy, but keeping it in the style of Bach is the hard part. Mind you, he broke all his own rules, so anything that sounds cool and is well written will get you a mark. Suspensions and tiers de picadie will get you extra marks, as well as obvious stuff like modulations to dominant, relative minor/major, tonic minor/major etc. As previously stated, wherever possible avoid parallel 5ths and 8ves, don't double the 3rd of a chord unless it's first inversion, try not to cross parts and never have the alto and tenor parts more than an 8ve apart (although sometimes anything up to a 10th will work, but be careful). Hope this helps.

[krenske]

As a theory teacher myself [you gotta earn a dollar somehow..] i pride myself on around 60% A+ gradings, and that includes the "less talented" [read "lazy"] students.
I have my own system as far as teaching goes [fool-proof ways to make any student sound as close to Bach as possible], but I would greatly reccommend Walter Piston's book on Harmony-- that's if you can find a copy [its quite old].
Unlike science textbooks, where "truth" is an evolving phenomena, the study of Bach harmony doesn't change over time, and I don't feel that Piston's book needs any updating at all.
As far as other analysis goes, I could greatly reccommend publications by Naji Hakim, although as far as I know, they are only in French. See najihakim.com................

[pianohenry]

thanks all for help.

yeh i have the reimenschneider - i play some of them occasionally.

i know most of the rules already, about parallel motion, 5ths octaves etc. and doubling thirds. ty for recommendation on theory books and stuff.

think i probably just need more practice

[mephisto]

OOOPSS

I wrote wrong. Sub-dominants should be used on the 4th the 6th and the 1st note of the scale, and not what I originaly wrote.

[hyrst]

One of the basic ideas that I find helpful is a general rule about which chords work well together.  I think learning the cadences is the easiest part - it's working out what goes in between that can either make or break what you are trying to do. 

There are a lot of lists of recommended progressions (IV-IIb, etc).  Nearly every one of these suggested progressions involves either moving up or down by a 5th, moving up by a 2nd or down by a 3rd.  (e.g. II-VIb, Ib-IV, VIIb-I, VI-IV).  Write your chord list at the topof the page (I to VII) and the dosome simple matching and counting. 

Write down all the possible chords for the strong notes of each bar, then map between them - which ones follow the rules.  Work it out until your chords move one to the other using the rules and are punctuated by the cadences (it helps to work backwards from the cadences).  Mix your inversions so that the bass notes make musical sense - but focus the inversions to the middle of a phrase and on the VII and III.
Write in your essential chords and then add suspensions, auxiliaries, etc. 
Writing harmonies soon becomes a lot of fun.  Make sure you play anything you write and then change anything you didn't like.  It's a quick way to learn.