Doubling means that one of the notes of the triad is in two voices at the same time that is, doubled. The treatment of dissonance has its basis in the techniques learned in 2-part species counterpoint: Certain notes may be suspended from a previous harmony that are dissonant to the new harmony, and then resolve typically downward into a chord tone.
In these rules, the bass voice would be assigned the root of the chord, although it can occasionally be assigned the fifth or the third.
Do not write pitches out of the range of the given voice. Successive perfect intervals are not considered parallel. The following examples apply whether the chord is in major or minor thus, imagine these both in C major and in C minor, with the key signature of three flats.
Double the soprano, regardless of which voice it represents. Four parts for instruments[ edit ] Some music is written in four-part harmony for small groups of four instruments, such as a string quarteta brass quartetor a woodwind quartet.
Resolve the tritone root to 5th of the secondary leading-tone chord inward if a d5 and outward if an A4, whenever possible. Notation for four-part harmony Also, the two staves are joined together by a brace, showing that they go together: In four-part harmony, the staves are joined by a brace.
Melodic augmented 2nds and 4ths are almost never found in chorale literature of the 18th century, however: The melodic descending diminished 5th d5 appears sometimes in the bass voices, but rarely in the soprano. Double the root of the chord, which is the same as saying double the bass note.