The Rule of the Octave

in First-Year Undergraduate Theory:

Teaching in the Twenty-First Century
with Eighteenth-Century Strategies
OLGA SÁNCHEZ-KISIELEWSKA
From the Neapolitan conservatories to Mozart’s Vienna, eighteenth-century musicians
commenced the study of harmony by learning a rule of thumb for the harmonization of
scalar basses known as the Rule of the Octave. This article presents a series of strategies
to incorporate the Rule into the core music theory curriculum, including activities for
analysis, keyboard skills, and singing improvisations. I suggest a parallelism between
the Rule of the Octave and linguistic collocations (groups of words that typically go
together), and turn to recent research on second-language acquisition to defend the
importance of memorizing the Rule of the Octave. This initial, apparently rudimentary
step conduces to significant learning of tonal harmony. Sharing my personal
experiences with the Rule of the Octave in the classroom, I illustrate the potential
pedagogical benefits of recovering and updating a teaching resource crucial in the
history of Western music.
Ý
For one of their composition lessons, Mozart assigned to Thomas Attwood a
simple figured-bass exercise beginning with an ascending and descending C major
scale, followed by the same process in the relative minor (the complete given bass is
reproduced as Example 1). This exercise presents what eighteenth-century musicians
called the Rule of the Octave, a rule of thumb for the harmonization of scalar basses.
Once considered the most fundamental harmony lesson (second only to cadences)
and a scaffold to much music-theoretical knowledge, the Rule of the Octave is absent
from most music theory textbooks today.1 In this article, I will discuss the benefits of
teaching harmony with the Rule of the Octave, arguing that it represents a musical
analogue to what linguists call collocations—which have been proven essential for
second language acquisition. I will share my experiences teaching harmony to college
freshman with the Rule of the Octave and suggest strategies for incorporating this
historically-inspired pedagogical tool into the twenty-first-century classroom. I hope
these ideas will inspire more teachers to include the Rule of the Octave in their music

1 Exceptionally, the workbook for Clendinning and Marvin’s The Musician’s Guide to Theory and
Analysis includes three figured-bass exercises inspired by the Rule of the Octave (2016, 173 and 207).
For detailed historical and theoretical accounts of the Rule of the Octave, see Christensen (1992),
Gjerdingen (2007, 467–70), and Sanguinetti (2012, 113–23). See also Callahan (2010) for a keyboard-
oriented approach incorporating the Rule into 21st-century pedagogy.
114 Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy Volume 31 (2017)

theory curricula; those who already teach the Rule may find new ideas to exploit its
great pedagogical potential.2
w
? 42 w ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ #˙ #˙
6 6 6 6 6 H 2 6 6 H 6 3# 6 6
5 4 5
3
? w n˙ n˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ w w w w ˙ #˙ ˙ ˙ n˙ ˙ W
w
6 6 3# f 6 8 7 8 7 8 u 8 m 5 6 R u 87 t 87
2 3 # 3 # C e C E 2 5
3

Example 1
Rule of the Octave as presented to Attwood by Mozart.

An analogy from second-language acquisition:

The Rule of the Octave as a musical meta-collocation
Similarities between music and language—albeit loose—have motivated music
scholars to draw on linguistic research to theorize musical structure.3 These parallelisms
also apply from a pedagogical perspective, since teaching music theory and teaching a
second language engage similar skills. The goals of both disciplines include listening
(aural skills) and reading comprehension (analysis), as well as fluency in speaking
(oral and keyboard skills) and writing (composition, part-writing). Second-language
acquisition involves learning groups of words that typically go together, known in
linguistics as collocations.4 For example, an English language student needs to learn
how to use the verb ‘to break’ together with words such as ‘someone’s heart,’ ‘the
news to someone,’ ‘a promise,’ ‘a leg,’ ‘the law,’ or ‘the ice.’ Learning such common

2 The ideas, approaches, and teaching experiences that I present here have been inspired and developed
in collaboration with my mentors and colleagues at Northwestern University. Robert Gjerdingen first
introduced the Rule of the Octave in the undergraduate curriculum and Susan Piagentini has been
largely responsible for materializing the idea into teaching practice. She developed the arpeggiation
exercise (see Figure 1 below) and the introduction to harmonic dictation using excerpts from the
Rule of the Octave; the rest of the materials and activities presented here are mine. I thank Susan
Piagentini and Vasili Byros for their contributions to my development as a music-theory pedagogue
and Robert Gjerdingen for introducing me to the Rule of the Octave and encouraging me to think about
parallelisms between music and language. I extend my gratitude to Janet Bourne and my anonymous
reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this article.
3 See, for example, Monelle (1992), Feld and Fox (1994), and Agawu (2009, 15–29).
4 For a broader discussion of the musical implications of linguistic collocations, with an emphasis on
galant schemata, see Gjerdingen and Bourne (2015). Their focus is on first-language acquisition and
usage rather than second-language learning.
Olga Sánchez-Kisielewska – The Rule of the Octave in First-Year Undergraduate Theory 115

idiomatic phrases requires addressing and memorizing them individually: no amount

of grammar and vocabulary can conduce to this type of knowledge. Teaching the Rule
of the Octave to music students is not unlike teaching collocations to second-language
learners.
A significant and increasing body of literature emphasizes the importance of
teaching collocations in second-language acquisition.  These scholars argue that
progress beyond lower-intermediate level requires learning “a substantial amount
of chunks” (De Knopp et al. 2010, 242), and that memorizing formulaic sequences
increases fluency, accuracy, and variety in speaking and writing (Wray 2004, Ding
2007, Dai and Ding 2010). Some studies suggest that learners are not sufficiently aware
of the significance of collocations, and that teachers need to increase their students’
awareness about frequent combinations of words (Vasiljevic 2014); other studies
have found that rising awareness alone has little influence on learning formulaic
sequences, which instead requires intentional memorization through announced tests
or targeted activities (Boers and Lindstromberg 2008). One finding of this body of
research—especially significant due to its implications for music theory pedagogy—
is that memorized formulaic sequences are processed faster than the sum of their
component parts (Wray 2002). Processing speed is essential for music students, who
are expected not only to acquire theoretical knowledge of chords, functions, and voice-
leading, but also to put this knowledge to practical use in playing, singing, listening,
and analyzing. These skills require them to process their knowledge quickly, almost
immediately, without having to rely on time-consuming retrievals from memory or
logical derivations.
In the language of music, the Rule of the Octave is not exactly a collocation:
musical utterances rarely feature complete scales in the bass. Instead, the Rule
constitutes a meta-collocation of sorts, a chunk of chunks that contains shorter
harmonic progressions that appear with high frequency in tonal music. As Sanguinetti
observes, “one of the great advantages of the RO is that it can be used even for short
segments” (2012, 114). But because the Rule also constitutes a whole progression with
its own internal logic and musicality, students can learn, practice, and remember it
as a unit, which makes the Rule of the Octave a cognitively efficient tool to teach
its many subsets at once. Learning the Rule requires a memorization effort in the
initial stage—as learning linguistic collocations—but then provides a solid scaffold to
study the harmonic language of the common-practice period. The Rule of the Octave
contributes to held together knowledge about tonal harmony and voice leading under
one overarching concept, thus making this knowledge more memorable and easily
116 Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy Volume 31 (2017)

retrievable.

Harmonization and theoretical implications

The underlying logic behind the Rule of the Octave is that “each scale degree can
be associated with a unique harmony, which reciprocally defines that scale degree”
(Christensen 1992, 91). Because of this pairing between chords and scale degrees,
the Rule of the Octave “is more than an ingenious tool for accompaniment of a scale;
it is a powerful means of tonal coherence” (Sanguinetti 2012, 113). The association
between scale degrees and chords conveyed by the Rule of the Octave derives from
general principles regarding consonance, dissonance, and perceived stability. The
Rule reflects the fluid compositional practice of eighteenth-century musicians and
appears in different versions; the version popularized by Fedele Fenaroli, reproduced
as Example 2, had become the standard by the second half of the eighteenth century
(Sanguinetti 2012, 114).5 The basic theoretical underpinning of this version of the Rule
is the pairing of the most stable degrees of the scale—1 and 5—with the most stable
interval—the perfect fifth—, whereas the remaining scale degrees are associated with
the less perfect sixth. To create momentum towards points of stability, the chords that
precede 1 and 5 include dissonances. Because of this principle, the Rule takes different
forms depending on whether we are ascending or descending: when approaching 1,
7 supports a 6 and 2 a 64; when leading to 5, 4 takes a 6 and 6 a #64 respectively. Finally,
5 5
3 3
because 3 is considered somewhat stable, it is also preceded by a dissonant chord:

&c w
w w w w
w w w ww w w w w w w w w
w ww w
w w w
w ww w w
w w
w #w
w w
w w
w w
w ww w
w

{ ?c w w
6
4
w
6
w
6
5
w w
6
w

6
5
w w

6
w
H
4
w w
4
2
w
6
w
6
4
w

3 3 3

& w
w #w w w
w #w w ww w w w #w #w w #w w
w ww w
w w w
w w w w
w w
w #w
w w
w w
w w
w ww w
w

{?
w w
H
4
w
6
w
6
5
#
w #w
6
#w
6
5
w nw
6
nw
H
4
#
w
F
2
w w
6
w
H
4
w
3 3 3

Example 2
Rule of the Octave for Major and Minor scales, after Fenaroli (1775).

5 It also coincides with François Campion’s earlier Règle de l’Octave (1719), quoted in Christensen
(1992, 91).
Olga Sánchez-Kisielewska – The Rule of the Octave in First-Year Undergraduate Theory 117
6 6
a 4 on 2 for the ascending scale and a 4 on 4 for the descent.6
3 2
The principles and chord progressions that constitute the Rule of the Octave
embody a wealth of knowledge about tonal harmony condensed in a concise formula.
Members of the tonic triad divide the Rule of the Octave into subsets that appear
frequently in the music of the common-practice period and cover several topics
relevant for the core music theory curriculum:
a) 1–2–3/3–2–1: Tonic prolongation and the passing V43 (or viio6) chord.7
b) 3–4–5: Extended cadential progression, with ii65 as a common predominant.
c) 6–7–8: Contrapuntal cadence. (This segment appears less frequently in actual
bass lines than all others.)
d) 8–7–6–5: The downward, stepwise approach to the dominant shares its harmonic
progression (I–V6–V43 /V–V) with the modulating Prinner from Gjerdingen’s
lexicon of galant schemata (2007). In minor, Fenaroli harmonizes descending
6 with an augmented-sixth chord.
e) 5–4–3: Evaded cadence/passing V42 .

Teaching the Rule of the Octave in the

twenty-first-century classroom
My first experiences teaching the Rule of the Octave took place at Northwestern
University within a music theory curriculum that unfolded in a historical manner,
beginning with counterpoint and continuing with figured bass. Within this context,
I presented the Rule of the Octave to my students after they had learned three-part
species counterpoint, principles of keyboard-style harmonization, and common
cadential progressions.8 Although teaching the Rule of the Octave is particularly

6 For a visual explanation of the generative principles of the Rule of the Octave see Robert Gjerdingen’s
website, “Monuments of Partimenti,” http://faculty-web.at.northwestern.edu/music/gjerdingen/
partimenti/index.htm. The simplest realization, by Alessandro Scarlatti, uses only triads in root
position and first inversion and harmonizes 6with a 53; the version of Francesco Durante harmonizes 2
with a 63 and ascending 4 with a 35 (as in Mozart’s exercise).
7 Comparison between versions of the Rule that harmonize 2with either 63 such as Scarlatti’s or Mozart’s)
or 643 (as Fenaroli’s) highlights the functional similarities between viio 6 and V43 chords. Interestingly, the
passing V64 —which current music theory textbooks often present before viio 6 and V43 chords—did not
participate in any of the eighteenth-century realizations of the Rule of the Octave.
8 I was fortunate to teach the honors section of music theory—coordinated by Vasili Byros—, which
placed particular emphasis on species counterpoint, but the progression from counterpoint to figured
bass to the Rule of the Octave characterizes the music theory curriculum at Northwestern University
118 Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy Volume 31 (2017)

appropriate in a historically-inspired curriculum of this kind, it is not necessary to

fully commit to the historicist impulse to take advantage of the Rule’s benefits. For
example, within a more typical music theory curriculum, the Rule of the Octave can be
smoothly incorporated after having introduced tonic and dominant chords, since I and
V(7) with their inversions account for seven of the ten different chords that appear in
the standard version of the Rule. The harmonization of an ascending and descending
scale in the bass presents, all at once, the most typical contexts for I6, V43, V(65), and V42
chords. Two of the remaining chords of the Rule of the Octave—ii65 and V43/V, yet to be
theorized in this scenario—would provide a reasonable segue to the introduction of
predominant function.9
Because the Rule of the Octave conveys a good deal of knowledge about chord
grammar, one could spend significant time explaining its theoretical underpinnings.
Instead, I suggest that in this case we may better serve our students by focusing on
experience before conceptualization. I explain the basic principles underlying the
harmonization of scale degrees based on their relative stability, but there is minimum
theoretical commentary and no discussion of individual chords—the emphasis is on
practice and memorization.10 I require my students to provide the figures corresponding
to the Rule at a short quiz at the beginning of class, to write a four-part realization
in a given key (including Roman numerals) for the exam, to arpeggiate the Rule from
memory using movable Do solfège, and to play it in different keys at the keyboard.11
Much of this memorization process takes place in the aural skills classroom,
where we sing the Rule of the Octave by arpeggiating every chord, ascending and
descending. First, students read from a sheet that shows solfège syllables for the
complete Rule of the Octave (shown as Figure 1). Then, we encourage them to rely on

as a whole. I use “we,” to refer to activities or strategies common across sections and designed by the
curriculum coordinator, Susan Piagentini. I reserve the first-person singular for those activities that I
devised specifically for my students.
9 I am aware that the idea of introducing an applied dominant so early in the chord vocabulary may
meet some resistance. In response, I would argue that putting it on hold until all diatonic chords
have been introduced does not do justice to the statistical prominence of V/V in the common practice
period. Instead, an early introduction of #4—with or without harmonic conceptualization— expands the
universe of viable musical examples for analysis, sight-singing, and transcription significantly.
10 Some students find the amount of information overwhelming at first: approaching the Rule as a
figured-bass exercise makes it fairly accessible, but I also tell students that my intention is to show the
“bigger picture” before we delve into the details.
11 The five-minute quiz simply provides an ascending and descending scale in bass clef; students are
asked to annotate it with figures. In the written exam, I present a grand staff with a key signature;
students write a four-part realization of the Rule of the Octave in keyboard style.
Olga Sánchez-Kisielewska – The Rule of the Octave in First-Year Undergraduate Theory 119

the sheet as little as possible and finally students sing from memory. The arpeggiation
exercise is repeated regularly over two weeks (typically occupying five to ten minutes
of every class period) and performed in different variants. Sometimes part of the
class holds the bass, or the instructor plays it at the piano as the rest of the class
arpeggiates; sometimes the class sings the arpeggiation without any reference at the
keyboard to practice maintaining pitch. Other times, students hear the progression
played at the piano, and are encouraged to audiate the arpeggiation internally and
consider chord qualities and inversions. To bring variety into this practice and foster
students’ interest, one can accompany the arpeggiation exercise with drum tracks
in different styles and incorporate diverse rhythmic patterns (Example 3 illustrates
just one option)—offering students the possibility to contribute with their own tracks
and rhythms.12 To ensure that students practice and memorize the arpeggiation, we
require them to submit a video of their individual performance after the first week of
practice, and later ask them to sing it from memory in a key of their choice during a
performance test.

Sol Sol Sol Sol

Fa Fa Fi

Mi
Re Re Re Re Re Re Re
Do Do Do Do Do Do Do

Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti
La La La
Sol Sol Sol Sol Sol Sol Sol Sol Sol

Fa Fa Fa Fa
Mi Mi Mi Mi
Re Re

Do Do

Figure 1
Worksheet for arpeggiation of the Rule of the Octave (adapted from Piagentini 2014).

12 I am grateful to Miriam Piilonen for suggesting this strategy. Numerous drum tracks such as this
one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQH-oLZO0OU are available on YouTube.
120 Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy Volume 31 (2017)

/cœ œœœœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœœ œ

Do Mi Sol Mi Do Re Fa Sol Ti Sol Fa Re Mi Sol Do Sol Mi Fa La Do Re Do La Fa Sol Ti Re Ti Sol(etc)

Example 3
Arpeggiation of the Rule of the Octave with a syncopated rhythmic pattern.

Although these arpeggiation exercises facilitate learning chord structure and

building connections between bass lines and implied harmonies, they entail a risk
of neglecting voice leading. To ensure that students remain mindful of the horizontal
implications of the chord progression, I sing the Rule of the Octave with them in
four-part harmony, rotating the parts so that everyone becomes familiar with every
horizontal line.13 Requiring students to learn the Rule of the Octave at the piano
provides a good reinforcement to the emphasis on voice leading, although it presents a
challenge for those without previous keyboard experience. To facilitate the task, I focus
on a limited number of keys and chord positions. For example, I asked my students to
play the Rule of the Octave in major keys up to two sharps or flats always using the
same position—so that they could focus on learning successions of hand shapes.14 I
prefer to teach the position with Do in the soprano (previously shown as Example 2),
because the alternation between Do and Ti emphasizes changes in harmonic function.15
With these parameters, playing the Rule of the Octave at the keyboard is an accessible
goal regardless of individual differences in keyboard skills: although several students
initially complained about the task being too difficult, everyone in the class was able
to play the Rule (with various degrees of fluency) after two weeks of practice. As with
the arpeggiation exercise, students submitted videos of their performances of the Rule
of the Octave in different keys at the piano and eventually played it from memory in
a keyboard-skills test.
To be sure, memorization and testing are neither alluring nor fashionable teaching
strategies. Modern pedagogy and public opinion treat rote learning with skepticism,
opposing it to “meaningful” or “deep” learning and challenging its pedagogical value
(Meyer 2002, Novak 1990, Towler 2014). Risks and limitations notwithstanding,
memorization through repetition is still considered a valuable tool (Arevalo 2015),

13 The Rule of the Octave teaches good voice-leading, with the caveat of the parallel fifths between
alto and soprano at 6–7 on the ascent. All eighteenth-century treatises tolerated these parallel fifths in
keyboard style.
14 The focus on the physical appearance of chords does not aim to substitute conceptual understanding
of intervals and scale degrees, but I find it a useful teaching aid to develop keyboard skills.
15 Especially relevant when applying the Do-Ti test (see Stevens 2016) for harmonic hearing.
Olga Sánchez-Kisielewska – The Rule of the Octave in First-Year Undergraduate Theory 121

especially in second-language learning (Nasrollahi-Mouziraji and Nasrollahi-Mouziraji

2015)—a process not unlike that of learning a specific musical style, as I argued above.
Educators in all fields and levels frequently face decisions regarding whether or how
much content students should commit to memory. When teaching tonal harmony, I
have found that memorizing the Rule of the Octave is worth the effort and that the
reward of this initial learning step is momentous. Teaching the Rule scaffolds future
learning of harmonic vocabulary, improves analytical skills, facilitates harmonic
dictation, enhances keyboard performance, and allows structured improvisation.

a) From the Rule of the Octave to mastering tonal harmony

The Rule of the Octave teaches a significant subset of the vocabulary of tonal
harmony efficiently (in the course of about two weeks). This musical knowledge need
not be explicit from the beginning. At this stage, students interiorize, for example,
that ii65 precedes the dominant, that V43 prolongs tonic, that V42 resolves to I6, or that 3
should be generally harmonized as I6 instead of as iii—before they have acquired the
vocabulary and formal categories to describe these harmonic concepts. Later, when
we make explicit the form and function of certain chords and harmonic paradigms,
and discuss them in more detail, students can relate these concepts to their previous
experience. This approach to teaching tonal harmony follows the principles of what
pedagogues call, self-evidently, the Whole-Part-Whole learning model. By presenting
first a simplified “Whole,” the model “introduces new content to learners by forming
in their minds the organizational framework to effectively and efficiently absorb the
forthcoming concepts” thus providing “a mental scaffolding to prepare the learners
for the new instruction” (Swanson and Law 1993, 44–45). The Rule of the Octave,
as a manageable compendium of limited yet varied chord progressions, provides an
effective “first Whole” to the complete chord vocabulary and grammar of tonal music.
Teaching harmony with the Rule of the Octave implies changes to the typical order
(as reflected by most music theory textbooks) in which certain chords are introduced.
For example, based on this way of presenting material, students encounter the ii65
chord before ii, ii6, or IV chords. There are obvious pedagogical reasons to organize
instruction by order of difficulty, therefore teaching triads before seventh chords, root
position chords before inversions, and diatonic chords before chromatic ones.  The
selection of chords that participate in the Rule of the Octave, although not exactly
aligned with an organization of harmonic content in terms of conceptual difficulty,
provides a fair representation eighteenth-century harmony based on frequency of
122 Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy Volume 31 (2017)

chord usage. Because of this way of prioritizing concepts, students encounter certain
chromatic harmonies, such as the V43 /V chord, relatively early. Similarly, in the minor
mode, Fenaroli’s version of the Rule of the Octave harmonizes the same point of the
scale—the descending approach to the dominant—with an augmented-sixth chord.
When I formally introduce this chord (after the period of intensive study of the Rule
of the Octave is over), I sing two different harmonizations of a stepwise descent in
minor from 1 to 5 with my students: an earlier version of the Rule of the Octave by
Dandrieu (1735) and the familiar one by Fenaroli (1775, both segments presented
in Example 4). The comparison with a diatonic version of the chord helps students
learn the function and contrapuntal implications of the augmented sixth.16 Previous
knowledge of the Rule of the Octave is not necessary to establish such analogies, but
repeated practice increases familiarity with the pattern, thus strengthening the effect
of the comparison.

&c w
w
w
w
w w
w #w
w w
w
w
w
w #w
w #w
w
w w w w w w

{ ?c w w
6
w
6
4
w
#
w w
6
w
H
4
w
#
3 3

Example 4
Fragment of the descending Rule of the Octave after Dandrieu (left) and Fenaroli (right).

Exceptions to the Rule of the Octave—such as the harmonization of 2, 4, or 6 with

a 5
3 when approached or left by leap—provide a possible path to expanding harmonic
vocabulary beyond the harmonies that appear in the Rule. Sequences follow nicely,
inviting students to consider segments of basslines as members of one of two possible
categories: those that move by step (largely explained by the Rule) and those that leap
(largely explained as cadences and sequences). Obviously, students can acquire similar
knowledge when content is presented in a different order. The advantage of using the
Rule of the Octave is that it makes knowledge accessible and easier to remember by
having it condensed under a single conceptual unit.

16 Presenting new content using analogy has been found an effective way to improve learning (Gentner
2010).
Olga Sánchez-Kisielewska – The Rule of the Octave in First-Year Undergraduate Theory 123

b) Incorporating the Rule of the Octave into music analysis

One of the lessons that students implicitly learn with the Rule of the Octave is the
importance of bass lines and how to read their harmonic implications. Memorizing
this standard harmonization enables students to infer harmonies from basslines
with fluency and accuracy. During the process of learning the Rule of the Octave, I
expose students to multiple examples of music that contain subsets of ascending or
descending scales in the bass. To be sure, real basslines do much more than move
stepwise but nevertheless subsets of the Rule of the Octave account for a substantial
number of harmonic progressions found in eighteenth-century music. (As a sample,
Example 7 shows the total number of appearances of each subset of the Rule in the
expositions of Mozart’s Piano Sonatas, computed by myself.)

30

25

20
Instances found

15

10

0
do-re-mi mi-fa-sol sol-la-ti-do do-ti-la-sol sol-fa-mi mi-re-do

Figure 2
Number of instances of the subsets of the Rule of the Octave
in expositions of Mozart’s Piano Sonatas.

Examples of baroque music with unfigured basses provide an opportunity to

approach harmonic analysis with a practical question: how would you harmonize the
bass line if you were the continuo player? This type of question addresses directly the
kind of skill targeted by the Rule of the Octave in its original historical context. For
124 Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy Volume 31 (2017)

example, I present my students with the last six bars of the A section from Handel’s
aria “Piangerò la sorte mia” (Example 5). The class provides the figures implied by the
Rule of the Octave, we confirm them with the violin parts, and then write a possible
realization in keyboard style. After having examined this segment, which projects
a standard realization of the Rule of the Octave, I bring students’ attention to the
beginning of this lament aria, where Handel uses the descending scale in the bass but
harmonizes it differently at each occurrence (Example 6). The comparison exercise
serves to present different ways of harmonizing the same bass line and offers an
opportunity to engage students in questions of musical expression. At the onset of
the aria, weeping Cleopatra lacks the momentum associated with the forward-driving
succession of chords of the Rule of the Octave. Her first descent lacks #4 over 6; for
the second iteration (m.6), she sings to the even more passive, downward sliding
seventh in the bass instead of using the V6 chord; and the third, incomplete descent
(mm. 11–12) emphasizes the minor quality of the submediant chord. Only for the last
iteration of the descent in the bass (Example 5), when Cleopatra is about to explode in
anger for the contrasting section of this aria da capo, did Handel deploy the standard
Rule of the Octave—perhaps finding the “correct” harmonization at the same time as
Cleopatra finds her strength.17

° ####3 ‰ ‰ œ œ œ™ œ œ
U
Violin I & 8 œ œ œ™ œ œ œ™ œ œ™
##3 j U
Violin II & # #8 ∑ ‰ œ œ œ #œ œ™ nœ œ œ œ œ™ œ œ™
# ##3
Cleopatra & # 8 œ™ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑

? ####38 j œ œ œ U
œ
vrò.
œ™ œ™ œ œ œ
œ œ™
Continuo
¢
Example 5
Handel, Giulio Cesare, “Piangerò la sorte mia,” measures 38–47.

The Rule can also inform analysis of music beyond the eighteenth century. The
“Enigma” theme of Elgar’s Variations Op. 36 begins with a normative realization of
the ascending Rule, interrupted as 5 is harmonized with a 6
4 that does not resolve

17 The beginnings from Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations and Mozart’s Piano Sonata in E-flat K. 282
provide good illustrations of the descending Rule of the Octave. Ascents are more likely to appear in
segments than as a complete scale.
Olga Sánchez-Kisielewska – The Rule of the Octave in First-Year Undergraduate Theory 125

° ####3 œ œ™
Violin I & 8 ∑ ‰ œ œ œ™ ∑ ∑ ‰
œ
##3 œ
Violin II & # #8 ∑ ∑ ‰ ‰ œj
œ œ
œ ∑ ∑ ‰
œ
##3 j r
Cleopatra & # #8 ‰ œ œJ œ™ ‰ œj™ œ œ™
R œ œ œ™j œ œ ™ œ œ ‰ ∑

? ####38 Ϫ j Ϫ
Pian - ge - rò, pian - ge - rò la sor - te mi a,
Continuo œ™ œ™ œ™ œ œ œ œ œ™
¢

° #### œ œ œ œ
& ‰ #œ ™ œ œ œ ‰ ‰ œ™ J œ J ∑ ∑ ∑
# ## Ϫ
&# ∑ ‰ œ™ œ œ ‰ ‰ œ œ ∑ ∑ ∑
# ## œ ™ œ œ™j r
‰ œJ œJ
œ œ œ œ #œj™
& # ‰ œj™ R œJ œ œ J œ œ ™ #œ œ
J œ™ œ œ™
R
œ
si cru - de - le e tan - to ri a, fin - chè
#œ
vi - ta in pet - toa vrò;
? # ## œ œ J œ™ œ œ œ
j
œ œ
¢ # œ™ œ™ œ œ œ œ œ J œ™

Example 6
Handel, Giulio Cesare, “Piangerò la sorte mia,” measures 1–11.

to the expected V.18 This discrepancy serves to highlight the conspicuous absence
of the dominant chord in the first phrase (one feature of the theme that students
occasionally overstate, asking whether the absence of V constitutes Elgar’s “Enigma”).
Even for those passages that do not adhere to the Rule of the Octave, knowledge of
this standard harmonization provides students with a set of expectations to confirm
or reject depending on musical evidence rather than approaching their analytical
decisions from scratch. With nothing in their analytical toolkit other than cadences
and the Rule of the Octave, students can make sense of a significant amount of music
of the common practice period; when approaching different repertoires, the Rule
remains a useful background for comparison that allows students to realize the nature
of stylistic differences. For example, Janet Bourne uses the Rule of the Octave in a
project where students harmonize current popular-music tunes in eighteenth-century
style.19

18 I am grateful to Robert Gjerdingen for bringing this example to my attention.

19 Personal communication, May 2017.
126 Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy Volume 31 (2017)
Andante

° b4 œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ nœ œœnœœ œœ #œœ œœ
ten.
œ
legato e sostenuto

& b 4 Œ œ- -œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ - -œ œ œ œ
b4
p molto espress. pp cresc. p

& b 4 œ Œ #œ Œ œ Œ œ Œ œ
Œ Œ ˙˙ œœ Œ œœ Œ œœ Œ ˙ ˙ ˙ #˙
-œ œ- - - -œ œœ - - ˙ ˙
--
? bb 44 œœ Œ œœ- Œ -œ Œ -œœ Œ -œ
œ Œ œœ Œ n˙˙ œœ Œ - -
#œœ Œ œœ Œ ẇ n˙ œ
œ œ
¢ -œ ˙™
pp

Example 7
Elgar, Variations Op. 36, measures 1–7.

c) Using the Rule of the Octave to facilitate harmonic hearing

The set of harmonic expectations derived from the Rule of the Octave provides
a scaffold to approach not only analysis but also harmonic dictation, which students
tend to perceive as a difficult task at first. Our first harmonic transcriptions use
combinations of scalar basses and cadences, thus removing the challenge of hearing
harmony. Because harmonies are directly inferred from the bass line, the activity
renders harmonic hearing somewhat trivial. Yet it provides a comfortable first step to
introduce harmonic hearing by directing attention to bass lines, which some listeners
find “at first puzzling and seemingly inscrutable” (Karpinski 2000, 120). Once they
identify the bass, students find it reassuring that they can simply apply their knowledge
of the Rule of the Octave to make educated guesses about chord identification. Surely,
having a set of expectations on a given bass does not exhaust the skills for successful
harmonic hearing but it does facilitate the task, enabling decisions that consider the
aural input as well as a set of highly probable options within a given style. In the
passage by Beethoven showed as Example 8, Karpinski suggests the following strategy
to identify chords:

After determining the pitches of the bass line, listeners can move on to identifying
the inversions of individual chords. Coupling bass line scale degrees with inversion
yields root identification and Roman-numeral labels. Through deductive reasoning, the
conjunction of bass scale degree and chord inversion leads logically to a single chord
root (2000, 121).

Deductive reasoning need not follow the identification of inversions: it can

participate in the process directly after the identification of the bass line, thus
assisting in the determination of inversions. By mapping the passage onto the Rule
of the Octave, students quickly discard ii or iii as viable chords in this context, and
Olga Sánchez-Kisielewska – The Rule of the Octave in First-Year Undergraduate Theory 127

. . . œ. œ .
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ œœœœ #œ œ œ œœœœ
3 œœ œœ
#œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
œ œ#œ œ œ œ œ œ
3

&4 œœ œ œ

{ ˙™ ˙™ ˙™ ˙™ ˙™
sfz sfz sfz sfz
? 43 ˙™ ˙™ ˙™ ˙™
˙™

Example 8
Beethoven, Piano Sonata in C Major Op. 2, No. 3, third movement, Trio, measures 17–21.

arrive at a I–V43–I6 for the first three measures. Certainly, teachers and students should
use this type of stylistically-informed logic as an aid, not a substitute, of harmonic
hearing. Students need to consider that 2 can support V43 but also viio6 (as in the version
of the Rule of the Octave that Mozart taught to Attwood) or V64 (Beethoven’s choice
for the passage, although during his time it was a less common alternative that the
previous two). Harmonic listening is simplified to a choice between the three chords,
depending on whether students hear 5 in the second measure—a task that Beethoven
facilitates through register and texture—and/or 4. Similarly, for the 4 in the left hand in
measure four, students may wonder whether to assign a ii65 or a V42. To decide between
predominant and dominant functions, I advise students to discriminate between the
two alternatives applying the Do-Ti test (Stevens 2017).20

d) Enhancing keyboard skills with the Rule of the Octave

I already mentioned that practice at the keyboard reinforces memorization of

the Rule of the Octave while emphasizing proper voice leading. Additionally, learning
to play the Rule of the Octave enables students to perform exercises in figured and
unfigured bass of considerable difficulty for freshman without previous keyboard
experience. After my students learned the Rule of the Octave, we analyzed the theme
of Bach’s Goldberg Variations—most of which can be explained as a succession of
subsets of the Rule in G major and D major. Then, I presented them with a bass line
that included only those figures not derived from the Rule of the Octave (as shown in
Example 9) and asked them to play, sing, and harmonize it at the keyboard. This is a
task of considerable difficulty for students without previous piano training but it was

20 Students do learn that in this type of neighboring motion they should apply the Rule of the Octave
to harmonize the bass depending on the point of arrival—although they do not always remember this
rule when they encounter an example like the one from Beethoven’s Sonata. The Do-Ti test allows
students to locate dominant harmonies by singing (or audiating) either Do or Ti.
128 Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy Volume 31 (2017)

accessible to everyone in the class.21 Drawing on their knowledge of the Rule of the
Octave, students also sang in solfège excerpts from Handel’s arias (such as “Piangerò
la sorte mia” or “Ombra mai fu”) while accompanying themselves at the keyboard
playing the continuo parts, which contain several segments of the Rule of the Octave.

? # 43 ˙™ ˙ ™ ˙™ ˙ œ œ ˙ ™ ˙ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ™œ ˙™ œ œ œ œ œ œ™ œ œ œ œ ™ œJ œ œ ˙ ™ ˙™ ˙ ™ ˙ ™
œ™ œ J
6 F 5
2 3

Example 9
Bass line from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, measures 1–16.

e) Improvising with the Rule of the Octave

The Rule of the Octave provides a starting point to create diverse, structured
improvisation exercises. I begin by splitting the class into three groups and singing
the three upper voices of the Rule of the Octave as I play the scale at the piano, using a
slide (shown as Figure 3a) for visual support.22 Then, I remove part of the information—
showing a second slide that contains no information regarding harmony but provides
a visual aid for students to track in which point of the scale they are at every moment
(Figure 3b)—and ask students to sing again. At this stage, the exercise combines
memory with restricted improvisation: students typically remember parts of the line
that they have just sang; where memory fails, they draw on their knowledge of the
Rule of the Octave to move to a close note of the following chord. After a few rounds
up and down the scale following different voice-leading paths, students are ready to
incorporate rhythmic patterns. For example, we applied one of the basic rhythmic
patterns of the sarabande (shown in Example 10a) to the Rule of the Octave, changing
chords every measure.23 In another improvisation, I used a siciliano rhythm (Example
10b) and asked students to add a neighbor tone of their choice for the sixteenth-note
and a chordal leap for the eighth-note of the second measure.

21 An audio track with a performance by an average student from the class (a viola major without
previous piano training) is available at https://vimeo.com/237661409
22 For small labs/sections, the activity works well without the alto part. This distribution also
eliminates the problem of the parallel fifths between alto and soprano towards the end of the ascending
scale (eighteenth-century treatises tolerated these fifths in keyboard style).
23 For a demonstration see https://vimeo.com/237659703 (the audio was recorded in a Freshman
Aural skills class during the winter of 2017). The audio begins on Fa in the ascending version of the
Rule.
Olga Sánchez-Kisielewska – The Rule of the Octave in First-Year Undergraduate Theory 129
a) b)
Do Ti Do Do Ti Do Re Do Do Ti Do Do Ti Do Re Do

Sol Sol Sol La Sol Fa Sol Sol Sol Sol Sol La Sol Fa Sol Sol

Mi Fa Mi Re Re Fa Fa Mi Mi Fa Mi Re Re Fa Fa Mi

Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do

Do Ti Do Ti Ti Do Re Do Do Ti Do Ti Ti Do Re Do

Sol Sol Sol Sol Sol Fi Sol Sol Sol Sol Sol Sol Sol Fi Sol Sol

Mi Fa Mi Re Re Re Re Mi Mi Fa Mi Re Re Re Re Mi

Figure 3
Materials for singing improvisation using the Rule of the Octave.

a)
3 j
/4œ œ™ œ œ ˙
b)
6 j j
/ 8 œ™ œ œ œ œ œ™ œ œ œ œ
(NT) (CL) (NT) (CL)

Example 10
Typical rhythmic patterns of the sarabande and the siciliano used for improvisations.

An informal student survey

I would like to let students speak for themselves regarding the pedagogical
benefits of learning harmony with the Rule of the Octave. At the end of the Winter
Quarter of 2017, when the period of intense study of the Rule of the Octave was already
behind them, I asked my aural skills class about their reactions to this component of
the course. The results of my inquiry do not constitute strong empirical evidence of
the effectiveness of the method: the sample was small and some students might have
answered what they thought I wanted to hear. Yet I believe there is value in their
responses. The survey was voluntary and anonymous, and I received 16 responses
from a total of 22 students. When asked how often the Rule of the Octave had informed
their hearing, singing, writing, or analysis of harmony, most students answered
“frequently” or “very frequently;” when asked how useful it had been to memorize
the Rule, the majority responded “helpful” or “very helpful” (a summary of their
answers appears in Figures 4 and 5). Finally, I asked for a free response about their
own perception of the benefits of memorizing the Rule of the Octave. Unsurprisingly,
130 Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy Volume 31 (2017)

9
8
7
Number of students

6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(0=never, 10=always)

Figure 4
Students’ responses to the question “How often has the Rule of the Octave
informed your way of hearing, arpeggiating, writing, or analyzing harmony?”

4
Number of students

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(0=useless, 10=immensely helpful)

Figure 5
Students’ responses to the question “How useful
has it been to memorize the Rule of the Octave?”
Olga Sánchez-Kisielewska – The Rule of the Octave in First-Year Undergraduate Theory 131

several responses emphasized learning harmonic progression and voice leading. Some
students felt that the predictive power of the Rule of the Octave had improved their
listening and analytical skills, and a couple of students were quite enthusiastic about
the impact of the method in their musicianship (responses shown in Table 1).

What do you think you have gained by learning the Rule of the Octave?
A better sense of how/why some chord progress in a certain manner.
Better understanding of chord progressions and harmonization.
I learned how harmony progresses.
Helped learn proper voice-leading + a good idea of chord progressions.
Voice leading in chords in relation to scale degree.
How to predict progressions based on the bass line.
It helps me predict what might happen in the music.
It helps on looking at a bass line and being able to get a very likely sketch of the harmonies.
Being able to analyze more quickly given the bass line in common practice period.
Helps analyzing music in a new way.
I understand the relation between the tonic and the dominant better.
Made it easier to understand the Roman numerals and the reasons behind them.
Good understanding of the relationship between figures and harmony.
A great knowledge of period practice harmonization and a standard chord progression
which so much music is based off.
An understanding of the way chord progressions generally worked in the Baroque and Classical
periods.
I have been able to listen to classical music better.
I love ROTO. I feel that it has helped me a lot as a musician. It is very fundamental and tedious but
I’m glad I was taught it, as I understand analysis and composition better now!

Table 1
Open-ended responses (quoted verbatim) from the student survey on the Rule of the Octave.

Conclusion
When music theory students learn the Rule of the Octave, not only do they
acquire a chord vocabulary; they also internalize a set of chord progressions, musical
collocations that they can subsequently “read,” “write,” “hear,” and “speak.” Empirical
evidence shows the importance and effectiveness of memorizing linguistic collocations
132 Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy Volume 31 (2017)

for second-language learners; music-language learners can also benefit from similar,
targeted memorization activities. As I acknowledged above, mechanical repetition has
limited allure for students and educators today and the reader will not be surprised
to learn that students do not tend to respond enthusiastically to the first stage of
learning the Rule of the Octave. However, after going through this initial step, once
students have memorized the Rule in writing, singing, and playing, they have acquired
a wealth of knowledge—partly explicit, partly tacit, and largely embodied through
singing and playing—about tonal harmony in a relatively short time. This venerable
chord progression is a potent tool to teach tonal harmony that we can use with
our students today—as Mozart did with Attwood centuries ago. Just as historically-
informed performance aims to recover the original sound of musical works as once
experienced by their intended audiences, historically-informed pedagogy provides
a window into the musical knowledge, skills, and ways of thinking of musicians of
the past, with whom we still interact in the twenty-first century classroom. In my
experience teaching music theory and aural skills to college freshman, I have found
in the Rule of the Octave a tool that is historically informed, cognitively efficient, and
that can generate a variety of valuable learning experiences.
Olga Sánchez-Kisielewska – The Rule of the Octave in First-Year Undergraduate Theory 133

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