"

49 Voice Leading

Voice Leading

Voice leading, also known as part writing, refers to rules about melodic motions of voices involved in harmonic progressions. The primary concerns behind voice leading rules are independence of parts, voicing of chords, and economy of melodic motion for the sake of singable parts.

“SATB” voice leading refers to four-part chords scored for soprano (S), alto (A), tenor (T), and bass (B) voices. Three-part chords are often specified as SAB (soprano, alto, bass) but could be scored for any combination of the three voice types. SATB voice leading will also be referred to as “chorale-style” voice leading.

Grand staff in chorale-style harmony - Bass and alto, stems down, Tenor and soprano - stems up. Bass and tenor lie on the bass staff, alto and soprano on the treble staff.
Figure 26.1.1. Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices on the grand staff in “chorale-style” voice leading

“Piano-style” voice leading means the three upper parts are in the upper staff (the right hand part) and the bass is the only voice in bass clef (the left hand part).

In piano-style four voice chords, the bass is alone on the bass staff, and the tenor, alto and soprano are grouped together on the treble staff.
Figure 26.1.2. “Piano-style” voice leading
Next Page

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

First Year Music Theory Copyright © by Liz Pauly is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book