Counterpoint

We speak of complementary rhythm (in a two-part setting) when two parts alternate a rhythmic motive so that a regular rhythmic pattern emerges.

A direct octave occurs when two voices move in the same direction, the upper voice leaping, and produce a vertical octave. This voice leading is normally considered a (soft) error, although composers did accept it under certain conditions, for instance by including a suspension in an inner voice at the moment of the direct octave.

A direct fifth occurs when two voices move in the same direction, the upper voice leaping, and produce a vertical fifth. This voice leading is normally considered a (soft) error, although composers did accept it under certain conditions, for instance by including a suspension in an inner voice at the moment of the direct fifth.

In his influencial Abhandlung von der Fuge (1753), Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718–1795) uses the expression per arsin et thesin “to refer to the entrance of a theme (usually a fugue subject) with displaced accents, former strong beats becoming weak and vice versa” (Walker, Arsis, thesis). (Marpurg was a German author, music critic, music theorist and

Sine pausa (without pause) refers to the fact that several voices, which are involved in canonic or stretto constructions, produce a simultaneous start of the same motif, theme or fugal subject, whether or not at different pitch levels, in inversion or including different rhythmic proportions. See also stretto. Select Bibliography Demeyere, Ewald. Johann Sebastian Bach’s

In music, stretto essentially means the overlapping of the same melodic idea/subject in two or more voices. Stretto can thus be considered a canonic technique, although it is usually applied only to a particular passage or passages within a piece that is not itself a canon. Stretto occurs typically in fugues. Paul Walker gives the

The term disposizione is used in the partimento tradition to refer to a fully written-out realization on as many staves as there are parts (in score) and in the Neapolitan counterpoint tradition to refer to a counterpoint exercise to be worked out in score. See also intavolatura. See also partimento. Select Bibliography Fenaroli, Fedele. METODO PER

A voice overlap occurs when two parts proceed to their next note and when that note of the lower part is higher than the previous note of the higher part, or —as is the case on the downbeat of bars 2 and 3 in the example below— when that note of the higher part is

An anticipation is a non-chord note on a weak beat or part of a beat that anticipates the first note of the next chord. This type of embellishment occurs frequently in cadences. Select Bibliography Kennan, Kent. Counterpoint Based on Eighteenth-Century Practice — Fourth Edition (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1999). Schubert, Peter & Christoph Neidhöfer. Baroque Counterpoint (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice

An escape note, or échappée, is a specific type of incomplete neighbour note and more specifically a non-chord note on a weak part of a beat that is What Is a Consonant Escape Note (Échappée)? A consonant escape note interrupts the usual descending motion of a dissonance (usually a seventh) to its resolution by first