Counterpoint

A Corelli (or Corellian) Leapfrog —a term coined by Gjerdingen in homage to Arcangelo Corelli— is a contrapuntal technique typically involving two upper voices above a bass. Consider the opening three bars of the following realisation of the fourth verset in G major by the Bolognese counterpoint master Stanislao Mattei (1750–1825). (For more on Mattei […]

The Italian expression colla parte means ‘with the part’ and is used in music mainly for an instrumental part that doubles (almost literally) a vocal part.

Changing notes or double neighbour notes are two consecutive neighbour notes between which the chord factor is absent. There are two versions: Both versions are characterized by the following intervallic pattern: a step, a third (between the neighbour notes) and again a step. See also neighbour note.

An appoggiatura is a non-chordal note on a beat

An octave displacement is a register switch in which a melodic line is continued an octave higher or lower than expected after a note on a strong beat, often because of a tessitura issue. Example a illustrates how two octave displacements in the upper part of bar 2 ensure that the first and last pitch

Horizontalizing the dissonance means that, instead of writing or playing an on-beat vertical dissonance, both notes of that interval occur successively in one voice.

In the second volume of his monumental Phrynis (Mytilenæus) Oder Satyrischer Componist (1677), Wolfgang Caspar Printz (1641–1717) gives the following definition: “Figura Suspirans is nothing other / than a Figura Corta, which instead of the front long note / has a pause half as long and a note equal to the other two.” “Figura suspirans

In the second volume of his monumental Phrynis (Mytilenæus) Oder Satyrischer Componist (1677), Wolfgang Caspar Printz (1641–1717) gives the following definition: “Figura Corta consists of three fast notes / of which one is as long as the other two combined.” “Figura Corta besteht aus dreyen geschwinden Noten / deren doch ein so lang ist /

Clausula cantizans = ⑦–① cadence Clausula altizans = ⑤/④–③ cadence Clausula tenorizans = ②–① cadence Clausula basizans (or bassizans) = ⑤–① cadence Treatises up to and including the first half of the 18th century mostly considered cadences from a melodic and polyphonic point of view. Instead of seeing a cadence in terms of a chord

A Neapolitan sixth chord is a chord on ④ with a minor third and a minor sixth. It typically occurs in minor, although you may occasionally encounter it in major as well. In both modes, the sixth doesn’t belong to the scale but is a chromatically lowered version of ➋, giving its specific flavour to