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Kitson, Counterpoint for Beginners

C. H. Kitson · section 9 of 10

Chapter VII. Counterpoint in Triple Time

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(1) Second Species

The following are additional points to those discussed under Chapter II.

(a) The Nota Cambiata idiom can be used between the first minims of consecutive bars.

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Fig. 343 · Play this example in the reader ▶

(b) A change of harmony in the bar is always allowable:

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Fig. 344 · Play this example in the reader ▶

(c) Avoid a complete bar of Arpeggio, as a rule:

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Fig. 345 · Play this example in the reader ▶

(d) Avoid a succession of bars with an auxiliary note on the second minim:

weak
Fig. 346 · Play this example in the reader ▶

Third Species

(a) The time is of course 3/2.

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Fig. 347 · Play this example in the reader ▶

(b) Avoid auxiliary discords on the accents.

(c) Examination candidates are sometimes asked to write six notes to one in 6/4 time.

This can only be regarded as two bars of Second Species in Triple time with the semibreve C. F. tied each two bars. Thus:

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Fig. 348 · Play this example in the reader ▶

should be thought of as being:

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Fig. 349 · Play this example in the reader ▶

The first and fourth crotchets of the bar should be concords.

Fourth Species

It has been pointed out that in Triple Time in sixteenth-century technique no suspended discord ever occurred on the first beat of the bar. It occurred on the second minim and resolved on the third minim. It cannot therefore be used against a dotted semibreve C. F. Here is a case where a departure may be made from sixteenth-century methods, at any rate for practical purposes. In this chapter, therefore, a suspended discord may occur on the first minim of the bar, and it will resolve either on the second or third minim:

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Fig. 350 · Play this example in the reader ▶

When the first minim of the bar is a syncopated concord, the second minim may be unessential.

Fifth Species

(a) Quavers are not used.

(b) If either the second or third minim of the bar be preceded by crotchets, it should be tied to the next note:

(1)
Fig. 351 · Play this example in the reader ▶

(1) Undesirable in two parts, owing to the halt on the third minim.

For the same reason the rhythm

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Fig. 352 · Play this example in the reader ▶

should be rarely employed in two parts.

Examples

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Fig. 358 · Play this example in the reader ▶
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Any of the Canti Fermi set in the previous chapters may be employed for exercises in Triple time.