...With Only Solfege, Normative Voice Leading Rules, and Your Wits to Guide You
For this exercise, I write Roman numerals and a starting voicing on the board, then make the students figure out what to sing next. I remind them of these normative voice-leading rules:
- The triad above the bass should be complete.
- The voice leading should be as compact as possible.
- If a note above the bass can stay the same, it should.
- If it can move by step, it probably should.
- No parallel fifths or octaves.
Here are some progressions, with solutions in solfege notation. I've made sure that if you follow the rules for these progressions, there's only one right answer.
---Ness
1.1 | I IV I
----+---------------
| m f m
| s l s
| d d d
----+---------------
| d f d
NB. Bass motion by a fifth: two upper voices move by step
1.2 | I vi IV I
----+---------------
| m m f m
| s l l s
| d d d d
----+---------------
| d l f d
NB. Bass motion by a third: one upper voice moves by step
1.3 | I vi IV ii V I
----+---------------
| m m f f s s
| s l l l t d
| d d d r r m
----+---------------
| d l f r s d
NB. This time we end up in a higher position for the tonic.
1.4 | I vi IV V I
----+---------------
| m m f r m
| s l l s s
| d d d t d
----+---------------
| d l f s d
NB. We have to lead the upper voices contrary to the stepwise base
to avoid parallel fifths between IV and V.
1.5 | I IV V I
----+---------------
| m f r m
| s l s s
| d d t d
----+---------------
| d f s d
NB. Chords 5--8 of the Goldberg Variations, in root position
2.1 | I V V/V V
----+----------
| m r r r
| s s fi s
| d t l t
----+----------
| d s r s
NB. 1. Note chromatic alteration for V/V: "fi"
2. Chords 1--4 of the Goldberg Variations, in root position
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