[Smt-talk] I - II- IV as a progression (counterpoint)

[Daniel Wolf]

On Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:20:21 +0200, Justin Mariner  
<justin.mariner at mcgill.ca> wrote:

> It seems to me that traditional voice leading and counterpoint have
> varying degrees of importance in different popular styles, and the type
> of voice leading is actually quite an important factor in how the
> harmony works.

Perhaps it would be useful to follow the example of Charles Seeger's  
dissonant counterpoint in which counterpoint was described as a system of  
principles and parameters, the latter of which are variable in any local  
manifestation, i.e. style.  In this way, we can accommodate — and  
productively relate — the strongly differentiated triadic polyphony of  
early music with, for example, the seventh-chord saturated melody and  
chordal accompaniment of the American songbook or the massively parallel  
power chords of some rock repertoire.  Moreover, this approach may be  
useful in differentiating technique used in closely-related repertoire; I  
wound love to see some more detailed comparisons of counterpoint and voice  
leading in the contexts of vocal polyphony, keyboards, and fretted  
instruments, each of which may favor or reject certain solutions.

Daniel Wolf
composer
Frankfurt