Chapter 15:Harmony and Counterpoint
What we have so far is shown here:197
Starting to add counterpoint to the first voice.As you can see, creating counterpoint requires a lot of logical thinking—it’s a lot
like thinking through the moves in a game of chess. The conventions are there and
it’s all very logical, but you have to work hard to make it all fit together as it should.
We’ll continue adding to the upper voice line, following the conventions note by
note. When we’re finished, we have two complete melodies, in counterpoint to
each other, like this:Your first counterpoint!
Your first counterpoint is a good example of simple 1:1 rhythmic counterpoint. Of
course, classical counterpoint requires that the rhythms differ between the two
voices, so let’s continue to work with this example to create some rhythmic vari-
ations.
How do you introduce different rhythms into the top melody? In this example,
you can do it by essentially scooting all the notes to the left one beat. That is,
you put the eighth-note figure on beat one instead of beat two of each measure,
and extend the measure-ending quarter note into a half note.
Here’s what this looks like:
Your first counterpoint—but with different rhythms in the top melody.