Arnold Schoenberg · section 29 of 30

Iii. voice leading

1. Avoid unmelodic motions—dissonant motions or those producing a dissonance. Avoiding them is advisable as long as our harmony does not yet use altered chords. They would be inappropriate to the chords we use up to that point;
2. avoid disturbing repetitions of note sequences, especially when the same harmony is also built on the same notes;
3. where possible, maintain a single high point, and perhaps a single low point as well;

4. Use as much variety as possible in successions of intervals moving by step and by leap, while striving to maintain a certain middle register;
5. if the voice leaves this middle register by a leap, a succession or a leap should, if possible, soon bring it back; and conversely—the change of register should be balanced again;
6. if the middle register has been left through stepwise motion, an octave leap, for example, could restore balance;
7. if repetition of a note or note sequence is unavoidable, a subsequent change of direction could help.

Insofar as these instructions apply, they apply equally to soprano and bass. Indeed, if the pupil could also take them into account in the inner voices, this would certainly improve the smoothness of the overall effect. But he need not go so far for the present; it is sufficient to work out the two outer voices as carefully as possible.