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Yes, Donna, I know. Writing in four clefs was indeed standard in the
Paris Conservatoire and so did we in Brussels. [I may admit now that
we usually wrote on a grand staff (piano staves) and copied in four
clefs before going to class.] Boulanger's teaching of harmony
appears in many ways to have duplicated that of the Paris
Conservatoire.<br>
<br>
The question of the distribution of the voices between the hands
(and the staves) also is of some importance for the "first
reduction"in the teaching of Schenkerian analysis. As you certainly
know, Forte & Gilbert usually chose for a choral-style writing
in what they called "rhythmic notation", two voices on each of the
two staves and in each of the two hands. Cadwallader & Gagné, on
the contrary, advocate a continuo-style writing, three voices in the
upper staff and in the right hand; they oddly call it the "imaginary
continuo". <br>
In my class in the Sorbonne, I privileged choral style, while my
younger colleague Luciane Beduschi advocated continuo style. We
therefore decided to shortly discuss the matter and leave it open in
the written text of our course. We show for instance that while the
modern Breitkopf edition of Bach's chorales is in "choral style"
notation (it defines the style, as a matter of fact), the original
Birnstiel edition of 1765 evidenced some hesitation between the two,
writing at times tree parts in the upper staff (in C1 clef, which
made it easier). Czerny's rewriting of Chopin's Étude op. 10 n. 1 in
his <i>School of Practical Composition</i> of 1848 is closer to the
continuo style, but probably because he keeps the distribution of
the original, with the bass in octaves in the left hand. (See also
Kofi Agawu in <i>Music Analysis</i> 8/3.)<br>
<br>
Continuo writing places the tenor in a more visible position. Yet it
seems to me an aberration to consider it of any importance for the
inversion of the chord. As you say, well written upper lines can be
inverted. Yet the Parisian practice of the <i>chant donné</i>
(soprano given) prevented us to do so at least for the upper part.<br>
<br>
Nicolas Meeùs<br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Le 20/03/2014 03:50, Donna Doyle a
écrit :<br>
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Nicolas, this disposition is normal for "keyboard" style (often
used in American keyboard harmony classes-- something to which I
alluded in my remarks). See, for ex Aldwell/Schachter, pp 97-8
(4th ed). As I also said,
<div>Boulanger urged her students to play two voices per hand, not
only to create a more open texture, but also to foster
contrapuntal thinking/hearing. She insisted that harmony
exercises be written in and played from four clefs (three C and
one F), so that each voice becomes a line in its proper
register. Of course, the soprano and bass voices are the most
important/noticeable. But often the three upper lines, if well
written, can be inverted.</div>
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<div>Donna Doyle</div>
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