The Cheater's Guide to Counterpoint

Think counterpoint has to be difficult and full of rules… think again. Sometimes you just need to write some music, and worry about the rules later. In this Symposium, we talk about the absolute minimum knowledge required to write counterpoint, and countermelodies.

[polenc]

I really felt that the true art of composition comes from the study of Renaissance counterpoint. Traditional counterpoint such as Fux, essentially ignores two elements of counterpoint: direction and entrance. Renaissance composers were well versed in these two concepts. Beauty and elegance were achieved to the highest degree (but boring to modern ears because of the lack of chromaticism). Please note, composers of the R. knew of all the chromatism were use in later music, they just didn't use it often, because of considerations of what was considered good taste at the time.

[shawnvstaden]

Thank you so much. Ive been listening to your podcasts for a year now and the e-mails are a great motivational kick also.

[riverstun]

You say that its hard to be a Beethoven or a Mozart, because we dont all have phenomenal memories etc. But here are our advantages: We have all of this theory at our disposal that they didnt have, we have composing software, which they didnt have, and we all have access to the scores and listening to all the works of the past. Can you imagine what Bach might do if he had access to Sibelius? to the harmonic theory of Rameau? to be able to listen to Messaien?
The crippling handicap we have today is the burden of feeling that we need to be "new". That is we write a chorale we are just doing a musical exercise of no value. That writing a fugue is a dry exercise. That we need to experiment beyond 12-tone rows and microtones and god knows what just to be "different"

[Ritermann]

Just the right thing I needed right now! Perfect input!

[Xemptuous]

The most basic thing about counterpoint is independent voices and contrary motion. Your 3rd voice was just parallel motion.

[ramesh]

Another educational vdo. Thanx. I can see Bb Clarinet.

[MoNsTaDuB]

Your videos are amazingly inspiring I have learned so much!! I love you take on music theory as a whole! Additionally, you quick easier shortcuts to get very cool intricate sounding compositions thank you!

[TainlorrMusic]

I totally agree with the message of your speech. Really fantastic.

[saraj]

Thank you for this video. Can you tell me which one of your videos would add or continue with this one? Thank you.

[tesahe]

Do you have any courses on non-tonal harmony? Though some basics apply in twelve tone music, such as counterpoint, which is very important for example in works of Webern, who is my favourite composer.

[johngeorgio]

Dear Sir, Your instructions are really cool and smart and useful Best Regards By the way : I would now be into deep well so to say - into deep consideration among many "rules in counterpoint, as presented by Arnold Schoenberg Introduction to Counterpoint ( or s th like that ) ( well :in Italian language )

[cabijista]

I see three things wrong with this compositionally.
1 - the chord progression uses mixture, that is, borrowing of a chord from the parallel major or minor mode, in this case borrowing the Fminor from Cminor for your 2nd chord in a Cmajor progression. This is a device of the romantic period. That would be fine except then an Alberti bass is added - a device from the classical period which makes the piece sound stylistically inconsistent (Alberti bass is NOT counterpoint btw, it has some melodic movement but is still acting as harmonic support for the melodic line).

[Frode]

Oooh, what program do you use to fill in the sheet music directly with a piano?

[cabijista]

I don't think you're going to be having an E natural against an F minor chord (unless it's a passing tone) in this style quasi-classical style. The Fminormajor7 chord sticks out like a sore thumb.

[Remcore]

My left ear found this really interesting

[iEMoTONs]

What app is great for composing this way? (Nothing like GarageBand) but notation...like what you were doing

[paltieri]

Do you still like ars-nova software?..which one do you recommend?

[lesmizzle]

The E is not a good choice in the 2nd measure for the stylistic context. An Ab would be more suitable. Also, the added 2nd line is not a counter-melody, but a supporting harmonic line. You need more rhythmic independence and contrary motion in the voices to have a true counter-melody.

[riverstun]

Is your interlocuter this guy? /watch?v=JcqrGLvs95M No matter.
I really like your presentation style. Regarding counterpoint, I feel you are downplaying its true impact, which is to get a dialogue going between the voices. Simply working in 3rds and 6ths and alternating motion a little is not going to really add the depth to a piece because fundamentally, you have two people chatting who agree with each other all the time. What counterpoint adds is to have a genuine dialogue going on, which brings the piece to a whole new level. It's the difference between a political talk show with a panel that agrees with the host and a show where you have people from both sides debating with each other.
It really doesn't matter whether you move from harmony to counterpoint or from counterpoint to harmony, the best music results from an intermarriage of both. I personally started from counterpoint, and I'm trying now to add chord progressions into it, but you can of course start with chord progressions and add counterpoint to that.

[GeoffBosco]

"This is pure theory"

I don't agree with that. You would have to be consciously aware of every mental process to know that one way or the other.