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In a Noteshell

1.5 Types of Motions

Harmonic Motions

In 4-part harmony as well a species counterpoint, we observe 4 different possible types of movements between voices:

  1. Contrary: When two voices move in opposite directions
  2. Oblique: when one of the voices remains on the same note, while the other moves in either direction.
  3. Direct: When two voices move in the same direction, but not by the same distance.
  4. Parallel: When two voices move in the same direction by the same distance.

Melodic Motions

There are 2 types of melodic motions:

  1. Steps
  2. Leaps

In general, we’ll favour step-wise motions over leaps, but to keep a line interesting we’ll also want to include occasional leaps. Most problems we’ll be encountering can be solved by using step-wise motions, but a melody can quickly become boring and predictable without a bit of variation.

The study of melody is mostly reserved to counterpoint, but we’ll still want to pay some amount of attention to creating beautiful melodies for our exercises. The most important voice to pay attention to will be the soprano, while the inner voices are not as important melodically.