Table Of ContentThe Principles and Practice
of Modal Counterpoint
Covering modal music from Gregorian chant through the seventeenth century,The Principles and Practice
of Modal Counterpoint is a comprehensive textbook combining stylistic composition, theory and analysis,
music history,and performance. By supplementing a modified species approach with a wealth of complete
musical examples and historical information, this textbook thoroughly joins principle with practice,
providing a truly immersive experience in the study of modal counterpoint and familiarizing students with
modal repertoire.
Features:
• A balanced approach to learning counterpoint combining technique, style, and composition
• Synthesizes the species approach and also the direct approach in an original way
• Includes many complete musical scores
• Provides self-tests and exercises throughout each chapter
Douglass M. Green(1926–1999) was a founding member of the Society for Music Theory. He last taught
at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was Professor of Music Theory until his death. Widely
known as an expert in the music of Debussy and Berg, Green was the author of many articles and books
on musical form and harmony, including the seminal analysis text Form in Tonal Music. He won several
honors throughout his lifetime, including appointment as a Fulbright Scholar to Italy, the ASCAP-Deems
Taylor Award, and the E.W. Doty Professorship of Fine Arts at UT-Austin. Green’s counterpoint classes
remain legendary among his students.
Evan Jonesis Associate Professor and Coordinator of Music Theory and Composition at the Florida State
University College of Music. He has received a Sproull Fellowship from the University of Rochester, a
Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the
Alfred Mann Dissertation Prize from the Eastman School. He has published research on music by
Lassus, Quantz, Schubert, and Xenakis in peer-reviewed journals and essay collections, and has edited a
two-volume collection of essays on twentieth-century string quartets.
The Principles and Practice
of Modal Counterpoint
Douglass M. Green and Evan Jones
First published 2011
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX144RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2011.
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© 2011 Taylor & Francis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
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or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
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Trademark Notice:Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Green, Douglass M. (Douglass Marshall), 1926–1999.
The principles and practice of modal counterpoint / Douglass Green and Evan Jones.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Counterpoint. I. Jones, Evan. II. Title.
MT55.G814P75 2011
781.2'86–dc22
2010005907
ISBN 0-203-84655-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN13: 978–0–415–87821–0 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–98865–0 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–84655–1 (ebk)
Contents
Foreword by Jonathan C. Santore ix
Preface x
Chapter 1 Modes and Monophony 1
1.1 Authentic and Plagal Melodies in Folksong 1
1.2 Scales and Modes 2
1.3 Plainsong 4
1.4 The Problem of Ionian and Aeolian 12
Chapter 2 The Single Line 17
2.1 Species Counterpoint 17
2.2 The Melodic Line 18
2.3 Melodic Intervals 20
Chapter 3 Counterpoint During the Middle Ages 24
3.1 Early Organum 24
3.2 Voice Interchange 26
3.3 Music Without a Plainsong Basis 28
Chapter 4 First Species in Two Voices 33
4.1 Harmonic Intervals: Consonance and Dissonance 33
4.2 Types of Motion 35
4.3 Adding a Counterpoint Against a C.F. 40
vi Contents
Chapter 5 First Species in Three Voices 46
5.1 Harmonic Intervals 46
5.2 Characteristics of First Species in Three Voices 47
Chapter 6 Counterpoint During the Fourteenth Century 54
6.1 Fourteenth-Century Textures and Rhythms 54
6.2 Canon and Hocket 58
6.3 Cadence Types 62
6.4 Fauxbourdon 64
6.5 The Style of John Dunstable 64
Chapter 7 Second Species in Two Voices 75
Chapter 8 Second Species in Three Voices 81
8.1 Intervals and Focal Points 81
8.2 Parallels on Successive Strong Beats 82
8.3 Cadences 82
Chapter 9 Counterpoint During the Renaissance 87
9.1 Introduction 87
9.2 Secular Pieces in Three-Part Counterpoint 88
9.3 Sacred Music in Four and Five Parts 98
9.4 Dissonance 107
9.5 Meter 107
9.6 Mensuration Canons 110
Chapter 10 Fourth Species in Two Voices 117
10.1 Consonant and Dissonant Syncopes 117
10.2 Suspension Types 120
10.3 Summary of Fourth Species 121
10.4 Application of Fourth Species 122
10.5 An Approach to Writing Fourth Species 124
Chapter 11 Fourth Species in Three Voices 130
11.1 Addition of a Third Voice to a Two-Voice Suspension 130
11.2 Relationship Between First and Fourth Species 134
11.3 Suspension Possible Only in Three or More Voices 136
11.4 Cadences 137
Contents vii
Chapter 12 Texture, Melody, and Meter 141
12.1 Further Characteristics of Renaissance Music 141
12.2 The Cadential Suspension 149
12.3 Meter in the Single Line 154
12.4 Imitation and Fore-Imitation 155
12.5 The Bicinium 156
Chapter 13 Further Aspects of Species Counterpoint 164
13.1 Mixture of the Species 164
13.2 Species Counterpoint in Four Voices 165
13.3 Summary of Dissonance, Use in Second and Fourth Species 169
Chapter 14 The Melodic Line 170
14.1 Introduction to Modal Counterpoint 170
14.2 Notation 171
14.3 Melodies in Quarter-Notes and Longer Values 172
14.4 Melodies with Eighths and Sixteenths 175
14.5 Setting Latin Words 178
14.6 Mode 180
14.7 The Single Eighth-Note and the Sixteenth-Note Pair 182
14.8 Isolated Eighth-Notes in Pairs 185
14.9 Eighth-Notes in Groups of Three or More 187
14.10 Use of Accidentals 190
14.11 Melodic Curve 191
Chapter 15 Modal Counterpoint in Two Voices 195
15.1 The Dissonances 195
15.2 The True Cadence 199
15.3 The Initial Phrase in Two Voices 201
15.4 Interior Phrases 202
15.5 Method for Writing a Two-Voice Phrase 204
15.6 The Consonant Cadence 208
15.7 Analysis of a Bicinium 209
15.8 Writing a Bicinium 211
Chapter 16 Modal Counterpoint in Three Voices 214
16.1 Texture 219
16.2 Cadences 220
16.3 Motives and Imitation 225
16.4 Victoria’s Et Misericordia Ejus: Cadential Treatment 226
16.5 Victoria’s Et Misericordia Ejus: Motivic Treatment 230
viii Contents
16.6 Part Writing 232
16.7 Consonant Harmonies 233
16.8 Unaccented Dissonance 234
16.9 Accented Passing Tones 235
16.10 Suspensions 238
16.11 An Alternative Example 241
Chapter 17 Modal Counterpoint in Four or More Voices 244
17.1 Texture 244
17.2 Doubling in Consonant Sonorities 249
17.3 Suspensions in Four Voices 250
17.4 The Final Cadence 256
17.5 Initial Notes 259
17.6 Types of Imitation 260
17.7 Triple Time 263
17.8 Some Notes on Writing in Five or More Voices 267
Chapter 18 The Rise of Tonality in the Seventeenth Century 268
18.1 Dissonance as Expression in the Early Seventeenth Century 268
18.2 Dissonant Chords Before the Seventeenth Century 269
18.3 Seventh Chords in the Seventeenth Century 270
18.4 Nonchordal Dissonance: Notes of Adjacency 271
18.5 Nonchordal Dissonance: Time Extensions 273
18.6 Diminutions 276
Epilogue: The Nature of Counterpoint 281
Answer Boxes for Self-Tests 283
Appendix A: Some Latin Texts 293
Appendix B: Pronunciation of Church Latin 295
Appendix C: Tones and Text of the Magnificat: The Canticle of the Blessed
Virgin Mary (Luke 1: 46–55) 297
Appendix D: Facsimile of Parts for Palestrina’s Missa Sine Nomine, Agnus II 299
Notes 302
Select Bibliographies 306
Indexof Rules for Species Counterpoint 313
Index of Rules for Modal Counterpoint 314
Index of Musical Examples 316
Foreword
When Douglass M. Green passed away in 1999, his magnum opus, The Principles and Practice of
Counterpoint, was almost completely finished, with only the final chapter of the second volume left
unwritten. The present volume is the first of two. Throughout his long and distinguished career as a
theorist, composer, organist, and church musician, counterpoint was always his primary interest. He began
work on Principles after moving to The University of Texas at Austin in 1977; early iterations of the text
were used by hundreds of Doug’s students at UT-Austin and Indiana University (where he taught during
asabbatical), manyofwhomhavegone on to teaching in their own counterpoint classrooms, and making
do with faded photocopies of Doug’stext. I first made Doug’sacquaintance as one of those students; later
(after getting through those courses successfully!), I summoned up the courage to ask his daughter out on
a date, and eventually became his son-in-law.
Doug’s heirs turned to me, as a family member with expertise in the field, after his death to shepherd
the book through the publication process. Extensive discussions about Principles with his friends, col-
leagues, and former students made it clear that, while Doug’s innovative approach to contrapuntal
pedagogy was as fresh and valid as ever, the prose of the text would require some editing for a more
contemporary audience. This was a difficult prospect for all of us who loved Doug and were reluctant to
change his final work. On the other hand, I strongly felt that the best testament to Doug’s memory would
be the publication and continuation of Principles as a living text, meeting the evolving needs of con-
temporary counterpoint teachers and students. For these reasons, when Constance Ditzel at Routledge
expressed an interest in an updated version of Principles, I suggested that we find a co-author who
respected Doug’s pedagogical aims, but would not feel constrained by his memory, someone who was an
active counterpoint teacher with a sympathetic but independent pedagogical approach. I believe we’ve
found this person in Evan Jones.
On behalf of Doug’s family, I’d like to thank Evan Jones, Constance Ditzel, and Routledge for intro-
ducing his work to new generations of counterpoint students, and for keeping alive the memory of an
esteemed and beloved teacher, mentor, and friend.
Jonathan C. Santore, Ph.D.
Professor of Music Theory and Composition and Chair
Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance
Plymouth State University (New Hampshire)
