Three-Part Counterpoint - Music Composition

Learn how to write three-part counterpoint. This music composition lesson presents a short musical idea and demonstrates how to evolve it into an extended passage of three part counterpoint. The characteristics of the initial idea are considered from the perspectives of melodic and rhythmic design & harmonic implication. The video then demonstrates how to use the initial idea as a point of imitation throughout a passage scored for String Trio. Then the free parts are added showing how to vary the texture and to use ingredients of the main idea alongside chord tones and non chord tones. We end up with a complete passage of three part counterpoint.

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🕘 Timestamps
0:00 - Introduction to three-part counterpoint
0:25 - The initial idea
0:38 - Thinking about harmony
5:39 - Analysing the design of the point
6:48 - Key structure and harmonic plan
19:51 - Working a piece of three-part counterpoint
51:10 - Playing the piece
51:57 - Conclusion

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[justin]

An hour long video on three-part counterpoint?! 😮 This is like a university lecture! Thank you, Gareth for these invaluable lessons! 😁

[jayducharme]

No need to apologize for playing three parts at once! Watching you compose step by step was really helpful. I marvel at how easily you can implement chords into the counterpoint.

[tobiasshklover]

Wow, so many compositional techniques are being addressed! Uniquely great lesson!

[daveking-sandbox]

A great demonstration Gareth! Out of your many clips this one is wonderful just seeing real time composition happening. I hope you can come up with more of these, especially on counterpoint which nobody seems to be featuring on YouTube.

[carlstenger]

Wow! What an absolutely wonderful video. I'm going to have to watch this one many times to absorb all the information in this lesson. I've studied the Fux tome on Fugues (on and off) for years and years; and, while I understand Fux's explanations and instruction, I'm still miles away from being able to apply his instruction in an actual composition. This one hour lesson has made the concepts of Fugue and Contrapuntal writing much easier to grasp. Thanks so much!

[theophilos]

Interestingly the sample ‘fugal subject’ theme given by Garth in his informative lecture follows the same rhythmic note-pattern as the ‘Rondeau de la sinfonie d’fanfare’ of 1729 by French composer Jean-Joseph Mouret which was later us’d as the old ‘PBS Masterpiece Theatre’ theme in the 1970s & 1980s hosted by Salford-born (‘A Taste of Honey’) broadcaster Alistair Cooke (I know, I’m really dating myself !!)

Meanwhile here are a few observations on writing fugues ‘in 3 parts’ bas’d on my own translation from the Latin of Johann Joseph Fux’ Gradus ad Parnassum (1725) beginning on page 154 (‘de trivm partivm Fugis’) which extends all the way to p. 168 —

1. Fux takes pains in 3-part fugal writing to include suspensions & ligatures in at least one of the parts throughout ‘for the sake of variety & excellence’ which technical aspects he spends a some time on ligaturi in pp. 69-77 in 2 vocal parts and from pp. 78-80 & pp. 103-114 in 3 vocal parts &c. and from his attention to all the rules associated with ligaturi Fux obviously wanted his students to gain some mastery & ease in applying them in fugal writing (both consonant ligaturi & in resolving dissonant ones) - so perhaps you’d like to add ligaturi to a part of your lecture on 3 part writing ?

2. ‘Tis All Ways better to use Full Chords’ I.e. whenever possible— thus Mozart wrote in Attwood’s sketchbook from November 1785–and Fux himself touched upon the specific use of ‘the triad in 3 part writing as being most excellent’

[Magnopere nempe perfectae Triadis rationem habendam esse] = ‘the largest consideration when composing fugues in 3-parts is the obtaining of perfect triads’

Elsewhere Fux writes that ‘3-part writing is the most perfect of all’ because it allows for full triads (chords) where in most cases additional notes are generally ‘replicated’ notes or ‘doublings’ as Rameau wrote in his 1722 book on Harmony…

Could you include these important aspects (especially ‘on strong beats such as the first chord in any bar &c.) into your 3-part discussions ? It might guide the student somewhat in his [often difficult] ‘search for the best & most operative notes’ in fugal writing’

It is good to hear you emphasize ‘variety’ into your lecture on 3-part writing — and your inclusion of ‘breathing rests’ —so I was not a little surpris’d to see you avoid ‘half-notes’ and ‘dotted-rhythmic notes’ in your counter subjects — the result without these niceties can sometimes lead the student into writing ‘empty plays with patterns’ or as Haydn complain’d about Baron van Swieten’s contrapuntal efforts that were in his estimation ‘as stiff & wooden as the Baron’s comportment & personality himself !’ LoL

Mozart provided Attwood with an excellent exemplar fugue in 3 parts in his own handwriting from c. April 1786 which was only Re-discover’d 10 years ago belonging to Attwood’s student notebook papers K. 506a (1 Aug 1785 to 4 March 1787) consisting of some 96 bars in C-major (but venturing into a wide variety of new keys) which included krebs, stretto, canonic imitation, inverted counterpoint & other technical elements for Thomas Attwood to copy out carefully by hand & study very carefully — it would make a great video for you to examine this exemplar to expose all the contrapuntal ingenuities contain’d there in …

When it comes to writing ‘fugues’ there was a no one definition of what a ‘strict fugue’ is only what ‘elements’ it might contain — even the great J.S. Bach (1685-1750) never wrote a single ‘strict fugue’ in his entire life—his fugal mastery was very very fluid as one can glean from his ‘Kuenst der Fugue’ examples — so perhaps some mention of the fact that technically there is no-such-thing as a Fugue by definition — only fugal compositions that make use of contrapuntal elements — and all the great contrapuntal masters since the 17th century admit that ‘fugal freedom of melodic invention for the sake of variety’ is paramount — unless one wishes to turn into a ‘wooden van Swieten !’ LoL !!!

[GRumpyonekinobi]

love it! really helpful...im a total newbie, a guitarist that's just getting into theory after a loooong time not really understanding why one chord sounds good next to another etc. Thanks for taking time to run this channel 😀

[DrGroo]

Thanks Gareth for another amazing presentation.

[jarodvmusic]

Absolutely brilliant! Such a simple foundation with an great execution full of interest and excitement. It might just be the style but the end product reminds me of something J.S. Bach would score. Thanks for taking the time to really explain things thoroughly!!

[petergreen]

Just what I needed.

Been spending the last couple of days analysing the Introitus from Mozart's Requiem in Dorico and trying to harmonise parts of it myself before checking what the great man actually did.

Made a complete mess of it and all those chord changes on every beat!

I need to go back to basics.

[sergelhoste]

Very interesting Gareth, I will use this lesson to try to design a 3 voices Canon for Instance with Cantate Domino as text, that I will be able to present to my choir to be sung at our weekly rehearsal. Please continue to interest, surprise us with these very interesting lessons. Serge From Aix en Provence

[CalebePriester]

I'm impressed. This definitely sounds like a baroque composition from Bach!

[ilninfeo]

Thank you, Maestro, for this excellent lesson!

[robertclark]

Wonderful and clear as usual. It's amazing how good you are at writing this stuff. I use a lot of counterpoint and find myself sweating over it. One thing I've found I like to try to do is to "modulate" to a new mode rather than a new key. Can be very interesting.

[NomeDeArte]

What a lovely piece you made. Super useful video, thank you very much! Best wishes from Argentina!

[HishamKhalaf]

Thank you so much for this interesting subject.

[x.sanctus]

As always a great video. Thank you for the lessons and the effort you put into them!

[BassPlayer]

You Handel this subject well. I will be Bach for more videos. I will Telemann I know all about it.

[mbashirov]

Hi Gareth, thank you for another wonderful video. I am really thankful to you for sharing your knowledge to us on the internet for free, you can’t believe how much I’ve learnt!

I was wondering if you would consider doing more videos on chromatic chords as I still struggle to relate them to other chords in harmony and understand the situations they may be used. Would you analyze or come up with harmonies that have various diatonic, chromatic, suspension, sixth, added 2, etc. chord progressions? Thank you so much!