Voice Leading


(entry for 9/20/24)


In the last post we started talking about four-part harmony. It’s time now to bring up a concept that has a definite affect on how that kind of harmony is worked out in actual practice: voice leading.

The first thing you need to realize, if you don’t already know, is that ‘voice’ in this sense is not talking about the human voice, but about a melodic or semi-melodic line that is independent of what type of instrument (or vocal apparatus) is producing it.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that the notion of voice leading did grow out of the way human voices were being composed for at one time. But, by the time so-called Classical Music came along, the word had expanded to mean what it means now.

To make this a bit clearer (I hope!), dwell for a moment on the idea of a children’s ‘Round.’ For example, think about the last time you sang “Are You Sleeping?” (The first four notes are at the top of this blog post, on the third staff.) If you started the round yourself, then at the end of the first phrase, your friend who was doing this with you started the same sequence of words and pitches that you did earlier. As you sing the word “Brother,” they are singing the words “Are you . . .” Then if a third person is involved, they’ll sing “Are you” while you’re singing “Morning Bells Are. . .” This is the basic idea of Voice Leading. Each of the three of you is singing independently of the others, but with an ear to what the others are doing. The ‘line’ of words and notes that each one is doing is called a Voice. When we talk about listening to music ‘linearly’ or ‘horizontally’ (or ‘melodically’), we’re talking about how each Voice progresses through time. On the other hand, if we are listening primarily to how the combination of Voices sounds at any one instant, we are thinking of the music ‘vertically’ or ‘harmonically.’ It’s of course possible to listen to both aspects at the same time, but when we’re analyzing music, we tend to think of it one way or the other, not both at once.

(Of course, since ‘Are You Sleeping’ has four phrases, it’s possible to do the round with four separate voices. Be sure to read about the idea of “Fugue” in the next post to see why four independent voices are very important. But, for now, a three-voice setting gets the point across.)

Now imagine that instead of human voices, the Round is being played by three instruments: say, a flute, alto sax, and clarinet. There are no words, of course (though I did give them the words in the example, as though the instruments could sing!), but each one of those instruments is playing the same notes that the voice would be singing. Each of those melodic ‘lines’ being played by each different instrument is called a Voice, and Voice Leading refers to the need for the instrument to play the ‘right’ note in order to keep the melody going correctly. (We're assuming here that the flute started the round, followed by the clarinet, and now the sax is starting in. The flute has made it to the third line of the round.)

(By the way, quick review: Why do the instruments have three different key signatures? If the question stumps you, I'd suggest going back and studying the recent post on Transposition. You can do that by clicking HERE.)

But now imagine that instead of each instrument playing the same melody at different times, each one is playing a different melody! It gets a lot more complicated! Yes, we need to make sure that at any given moment (thinking ‘vertically’) the sounds go well together (that is, they’re ‘harmonious’), but we also need to make sure that each instrument is playing the correct notes to keep their melody going (thinking linearly).

Here’s an example of four chords from a Bach Chorale. Notice how each of the four parts moves interestingly and semi-melodically. (This is from the Hymn that we call in English "A Mighty Fortress," and it's the second full measure of that chorale, whose real name is "Ein' Feste Burg.") The top staff has the soprano and alto lines, and the bottom staff the tenor and bass. It's not a round, because the voices don't repeat each other, but it's definitely a good example of Voice Leading. Please notice that the independent lines tend to move 'scale-wise,' that is, one step at a time, either up or down, or in intervals of a fourth or a fifth. That's pretty typical of Bach's style. In other places he does octave jumps as well, but he almost never moves up or down in sixths or seventh.



This concept is the basis of Voice Leading. Even in a string quartet or other four-part harmony setting, each 'Voice' needs to keep its ‘line’ going correctly and, hopefully, melodically. (When four-voice harmony is done with no thought at all given to the horizontal process, the individual parts can be pretty boring. “Johnny One-Note” indeed. We mentioned in the last post that John Sebastian Bach was one of the early masters of four-part harmony, and one of his most urgent needs as he harmonized his hundreds of chorales was to keep each part interesting and singable. (He was a tenor himself, so always wanted to make sure that the tenor ‘line,’ at least, was interesting. The poor altos sometimes didn’t fare nearly as well! Although in this example, their line comes pretty close to being the same note relationships as the first line of "Are You Sleeping?")

Next post, we’re going to talk about the Contrapuntal Era, and the style of composition that is named for it. This whole concept of Voice Leading is the foundation block of that style, and so we had to cover the foundation before we could build the edifice!

The composers in that Era, such as Pachelbel (composer of the famous and infamous ‘Canon’), Tallis, Fux, Palestrina, Lully, Buxtehude, and Purcell, were much more concerned with how music sounded horizontally, compared to how it sounded vertically. By the time of Haydn and Mozart, the emphasis was in the opposite direction. How did this change take place?

Once we’ve covered Counterpoint, we’ll come back in the next episode after that to Mr. Bach himself, and see how he perfected the idea of thinking vertically and harmonically both at the same time. He in fact is the primary ‘bridge’ between the two styles.


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To see other entries in Len’s Music Blog, please click HERE.


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