Lesson 10a - Basic Voice Leading Errors

Before we move on to fully analyzing harmonic function, we must define the stylistic rules of the music we will be studying. If you remember from our discussion of laws, rules, and strategies, rules are necessary to create a style. They are the binding agents that create a genre, but they also provide enough flexibility for composers within a style to carve out a unique voice.

For our beginning exploration of tonal harmony, we will be studying basic diatonic harmony in a chorale style. We will use this not because it is “superior” to any other style, but because it is relatively straightforward in its approach when compared to styles of music that came later. There are countless styles of tonal music that have evolved over the last four centuries, but a chorale style gives us the best starting place to study this evolution. So as we progress through rules that might seem outdated, do not lose sight of the process that we are creating. If you understand why each decision is made in this style, you will be able to intuit the next leap forward. And as we add complexity, you will eventually be able to apply these principles to any style of tonal music, even those that do not employ the underpinnings of tonic-dominant relationships.

Voice-leading errors

In the following example, each staff system highlights a different voicing error.

• Compare the “good” chords to the “bad” chords to come up with descriptions of the first two basic voicing rules of doubling and spacing.
• Because range is a simple maximum and minimum, I have listed conservative estimates for each voice part.
  • These can vary widely depending on the skill level of the intended performers but will be sufficient for our early exercises in part-writing.

Conclusions

To this point, everything that we have discussed has been based on a two-voice model, but to move into full diatonic harmony, we need to add inner voices and fully flesh out the harmonies. When doing this, there are certain rules that create better voice-leading and voicings when followed, but as with all stylistic guidelines, please note that these rules are generally strong suggestions rather than hard and fast rules. Good composers bend or break these rules if it better serves their ideas.

Doubling

When voicing triads in four-part harmony, at least one note must be doubled.

1. Doubling the root is usually the ideal choice.
2. Doubling the fifth is the second best option.
3. Doubling the third is generally unacceptable, although there are certain corner cases in which this can be necessary. As a rule of thumb, do not double the third unless you are working on a chord in which you’ve already been told that doubling the third is the best option.
4. If you need to omit a voice, the fifth is the only option, because the root and third are required to define the chord. Diminished triads are the only diatonic harmony which functionally benefit from a fifth, but even in these situations, the fifth might be the best omission if necessary.
5. You can triple the root if necessary, but this voicing lacks the depth of a chord with a fifth and can create a difficult voicing to continue writing afterwards. This is most commonly used as an ending chord of the piece (often after a V7).

Doubling in a seventh chord is similar, but because you have four notes for four voices, there is less freedom.

1. There must always be a root, third, and seventh in the chord, because without any of them, the chord is no longer a functional seventh chord.
2. If necessary, you can omit the fifth.
3. If the fifth is ommitted, the root is the only chord tone that can be doubled. Do not double the third or the seventh.

Spacing

Spacing is relatively straightfoward, but it can be difficult to create consistent rules based on the examples. Your final conclusions should be:

• The bass can be as far from the tenor as needed.
• Between the soprano, alto, and tenor voices, adjacent voices cannot be more than an octave apart. Meaning that the:
  • Tenor and alto cannot have more than an octave between them.
  • Soprano and alto cannot have more than an octave between them.
• Tenor and soprano can have more than an octave between them.
  • When the tenor and soprano are within an octave of each other, we call this a closed voicing.
  • When the tenor and soprano are more than an octave apart, we call this an open voicing.

In general, a good voicing will mimic the overtone series on which our harmony is created. This details of this concept are discussed in Unit 11, but a general rule of good voicing is to use wider intervals between lower voices and narrower intervals between high voices.

Range

The ranges for each voice in the examples are conservative, but will serve us well in our beginning part-writing. These are highly dependent on the intended performers.

Voice-crossing

There was no easy way to notate this in the examples, but you should avoid crossing your voices unless absolutely necessary. It is almost never absolutely necessary and often creates voice-leading and range issues. As you grow in your part-writing, you may find an occasional reason to cross voices, but do not unnecessarily complicate your first attempts.

Egon explained this best in one of the greatest 80’s movies, so bonus points for anyone that understands this reference.