Actually, it’s about forty-five seconds. Enjoy a three-voice fugue from yours truly. Keep in mind, I had to start somewhere too. With enough training, anyone can learn how to do this!
musicvideo
Weekly Music Theory Challenge 9/20/21
Show off your theory chops with my weekly challenge! You’ll find a new question here every Monday. Please comment to post your reply.
This week’s challenge:
This is from Mozart’s Minuet in C Major, K. 6. What type of non-harmonic tone is the circled note?
Reply to post your answer, and check back on Friday, September 24 to see if you’re right!
ANSWER for 9/20/21
This is called a retardation, a delayed resolution of a tone that results in temporary dissonance. The circled note is the leading tone in the key of G major, F-sharp. But rather than resolving up to G when it should, at the beginning of the final measure, its resolution is delayed until the last beat. This is the opposite of an anticipation, which is an early resolution of a tendency tone.
With Breaking Barlines you learn music theory the right way: fun, holistic, and with a personal touch! Have a look at the complete Breaking Barlines Course! Then sign up for a monthly subscription for full access to all video lessons, worksheets, and answer keys. New lessons are always being added, so stay tuned!
Weekly Music Theory Challenge 9/13/21
Show off your theory chops with my weekly challenge! You’ll find a new question here every Monday. Please comment to post your reply.
This week’s challenge:
This is from J. S. Bach’s Contrapunctus VII from Die kunst der fuge (The Art of Fugue). What rhythmic technique has he used in changing the melody in the top staff to the one in the bottom?
Reply to post your answer, and check back on Friday, September 17th to see if you’re right!
ANSWER for 9/13/21
This is a good example of diminution. All the note values on the top staff have been cut in half, resulting in the same melody on the bottom staff, but twice as fast. Bach’s ingenuity lies in fashioning a melody that works in counterpoint with a diminished version of itself. He never actually finished Contrapunctus, but the many fugues of this work show him at the pinnacle of his contrapuntal genius.
With Breaking Barlines you learn music theory the right way: fun, useful, and with a personal touch! Have a look at the complete Breaking Barlines Course! Then sign up for a monthly subscription for full access to all video lessons, worksheets, and answer keys. New lessons are always being added, so stay tuned!
Weekly Music Theory Challenge 9/7/21
Show off your theory chops with my weekly challenge! You’ll find a new question here every Monday. Please comment to post your reply.
This week’s challenge:
When writing in four voices, what’s the best note of an Italian augmented sixth chord to double?
- A) The Root
- B) The Third
- C) The Sixth
Hint: choose the option that avoids parallel octaves.
Reply to post your answer, and check back on Friday, September 10th to see if you’re right!
ANSWER for 9/7/21
B) The Third. The Italian sixth is the only augmented sixth chord with only three notes, so in a four-voice texture one of them has to be doubled. If you double either the root or the sixth, you get parallel octaves. The only note in the chord that can resolve either up or down is the third, so this is the best note to double. On the staff below, we have an Ab Italian sixth resolving to the V chord in the key of C minor. The third of the Italian sixth, C, can either resolve up to D or down to B. So the alto and tenor double this third, avoiding the parallel octaves you’d get by doubling either the root or the 6th.
With Breaking Barlines you learn music theory the right way: fun, useful, and with a personal touch! Have a look at the complete Breaking Barlines Course! Then sign up for a monthly subscription for full access to all video lessons, worksheets, and answer keys. New lessons are always being added, so stay tuned!
Weekly Music Theory Challenge 8/30/21
Show off your theory chops with my weekly challenge! You’ll find a new question here every Monday. Please comment to post your reply.
This week’s challenge:
Here’s a section of Jelly Roll Morton’s New Orleans Blues, published in 1925. The left hand has a rhythm that’s found its way into jazz and an enormous amount of pop music. What is this rhythm called, and where did it originate?
Reply to post your answer, and check back on Friday, September 3rd to see if you’re right!
ANSWER for 8/30/21
The left hand of New Orleans Blues is half of the Son Clave rhythm. It’s also known as the tresillo, meaning triplet in Spanish: the first three cross-beats in the 3-against-4 polyrhythm. Morton himself called it the “Spanish Tinge,” but it’s really Afro-Cuban in origin. The versatility of this rhythm, either in its complete form or just the first measure, has ensured its appearance in an impressive variety of musical genres. It influenced the Cuban Habanera, early jazz, Latin-jazz fusion (Professor Longhair’s Blues Rhumba), early rock (Willie and the Hand Jive), Beatles riffs, and beyond. Here’s the complete rhythm:
With Breaking Barlines you learn music theory the right way: fun, useful, and with a personal touch! Have a look at the complete Breaking Barlines Course! Then sign up for a monthly subscription for full access to all video lessons, worksheets, and answer keys. New lessons are always being added, so stay tuned!