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Voicing: Vocal Ranges

This document discusses voicing in four-part homophony, where all voices share the same rhythm. It covers open and close chord structures, with open chords having the top three voices spanning over an octave and close chords spanning less. It also discusses avoiding large gaps between adjacent voices or voice crossing, and doubling notes when using triads or seventh chords to fill all voices.

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154 views3 pages

Voicing: Vocal Ranges

This document discusses voicing in four-part homophony, where all voices share the same rhythm. It covers open and close chord structures, with open chords having the top three voices spanning over an octave and close chords spanning less. It also discusses avoiding large gaps between adjacent voices or voice crossing, and doubling notes when using triads or seventh chords to fill all voices.

Uploaded by

nkovi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Voicing

To start, we'll deal only with homophony, which is basically a succession of chords. In other words,
all voices or parts share the same rhythm, although the intervals between the various parts can
change. This is distinct from polyphony, where each part can have a different rhythm.
Since we're dealing exclusively with a succession of chords, we need to consider a couple of points:
1. here do we put each element of a given chord! That is, in which octave should we place
the root, third, fifth and "in a #
th
chord$, the seventh! %ow far apart "that is, in which octave$
should these tones be!
&. %ow do we move from one chord to the next! This is 'nown as voice leading, and we'll
consider this later.
Vocal Ranges
Since much early music was for voices, we'll build our chords around the ranges of the four main
voices: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. The ranges of these four voices are as shown:
In what follows, we'll wor' in four(part homophony, with one voice from each range.
Open and Close Structure
e'll now loo' at the spacing of the tones within each chord. There are two structures of chord
'nown as open and close structure. )n open chord is one in which the top three voices span more
than octave, and a close chord is one where the top three voices span less than an octave. %ere are
some examples:
In the first example, there is an octave between the bass and tenor, a fifth between the tenor and
alto, and a sixth between the alto and soprano. The total range of the top three voices is a tenth,
which is greater than an octave. "*ote the fact that you can't get the total range by adding a fifth and
a sixth to get an eleventh+$
In the second example, the interval between tenor and alto is a minor third, and between alto and
soprano it is a fourth. The total range from alto to soprano is a minor sixth, which is less than an
octave so this chord is in close position. *ote that the fact that there is more than an octave between
bass and tenor is irrelevant to deciding between open and close.
In close structure, the three upper voices must be three chord notes that are closest to each other. In
the second example, the tenor plays ,, so the alto must be the first note that is part of the chord that
is above the , "which is -$, and the soprano must be the first note above the - that is part of the
chord "the upper .$.
e could also have given the tenor middle ., in which case the alto would be , and the soprano -.
In the third example, the interval between tenor and soprano is an eleventh "a sixth from tenor to
alto and a minor sixth from alto to soprano$ so this is also an open chord.
It is often a good idea to stic' to either open or close structure for the duration of a phrase, but this
isn't a strict rule/ if a switch between structures gives you what you want, feel free to do it.
Two Things to Avoid
1. )void gaps greater than an octave between ad0acent voices in the top three voices. In the first
example shown below there is a gap of an eleventh between the tenor - and the alto ..
The reason for this is that a large gap detracts from the unity of the chord.
%owever, a gap of more than an octave between bass and tenor is 12. 3sually a gap up to a tenth is
acceptable, although larger intervals are also possible. The gap shown in the second example above
is a twelfth.
&. Voice crossing occurs when a note in an upper register is lower than a note in a lower register. In
the third example above, the alto ) is lower than the tenor middle .. This is bad since it's desirable
to be able to follow each individual voice within the chord, and if the voices cross, it's hard to tell
which note belongs to which voice.
Doubling
If we use a triad in four(part harmony, we have only 4 notes for 5 voices. To provide all 5 voices,
we double one of the notes. or'ing with chords in root position "where the lowest note is the root
of the 'ey$, we should double the root to provide the fourth voice. This is shown in the first
example below:
The bass and tenor both play a -, with the 6 "the fifth$ in the alto and the 7 "third$ in the soprano.
If we are using a full #
th
chord, then we simply write one note for each voice. In the second
example, the bass is the root -, the tenor plays 89 "seventh$, the alto 6 "fifth$ and the soprano 7
"third$.
%owever, it is :uite common for a note to be dropped from a seventh chord/ in such a case we need
to double one of the remaining notes. The dropped note should be the fifth, since the root is always
re:uired for a chord in root position, the seventh is re:uired to ma'e the chord a #
th
chord, and the
third is re:uired to determine if the chord is ma0or or minor.

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