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Could I get some good suggestions on how to aviod direct and parallel fifths and direct and parallel octaves on writing traditional harmony?

thanks

When the bass goes by seconds, try to get the other 3 to go contrary, and that solves a lot of problems.
When resolving Ger+6, I6/4 is better than V for 5ths
Watch your suspensions, although Bach himself usually allows parallels with suspensions. As a rule, by the way, never trust Beethoven, Schumann, or Frank to write without Parallel FIfths (BTW, in Figaro, I found a series of Fifths in No. 19...naughty wolfgang). Brahms is very good about avoiding parralels, in fact he bends over backwards because of it...look at the opening of the first Serenade.

These strictures were the hardest ones for me when harmonizing chorale melodies when I was a student. Good luck.

--Sixtus

I think that direct octaves and fifths could be trickier.

Is this for an assignment, in which case you have to be strict, or are you writing something? In this case, what you are writing might indicate what you can break and where.

I never understood what all the rules were for until I heard something polyphonic that had parallels in it. The voices disappear into each other and the polyphonic effect is lessened. This is more pronounced in vocal music, or in string music where the timbres are all similar.

If you are writing something for an orchestra with winds, or something where timbres will anyway help differentiate the voices, then you can get away with more "rule breaking".

Still, though I would only break the parallels rule for 5ths and octaves. 4ths are a "less nice" interval (I hate playing scales in 4ths), and I find that in parallel, 4ths become quite ugly.

I had to play some arrangements once by a rather arrogant conductor who didn't know his voice leading very well. There were some sections where even the right notes sounded wrong because they were so badly voiced. Parallel 4ths fall into this category (and he wrote more than a few of them . . . .).

steltz wrote:Is this for an assignment, in which case you have to be strict, or are you writing something? In this case, what you are writing might indicate what you can break and where.

It is an assignment, where it tells you what kind of chord to write in a specific inversion.

A composer who knew how to do his voice leadings well was Josef Rheinberger. He wrote good music that sounds like a balanced mixture of Brahms and Dvorak.

perlnerd666 wrote:Brahms is very good about avoiding parralels, in fact he bends over backwards because of it...look at the opening of the first Serenade.

Do you mean the Second Serenade, the one in A major?

I just bought Counterpoint software which analyzes your score and tells you what's wrong. So hopefully over time you will learn the tricks that avoid some of the common problems instead of always trial and error.