Harmonizing a Melody

[allegroamabile]

I am starting to compose, and I know a descent amount of theory, but I am terrible at harmonization. I am using triads and all but the harmonization just sounds so awkward. Often, I get stuck using a very limited amount of chords. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[sbeckmesser]

The problem is likely voice leading, which can be improved if you just play the harmonies as chords (like in a Bach chorale) and manipulate the lower voices to achieve smoother and more singable lines in each voice all the while following the classic voice-leading rules (no parallel 5ths or octaves, false relations etc.)

--Sixtus

[allegroamabile]

So alter the lower notes while achieving common tone in the upper voices?

[vinteuil]

Stepwise motion is the idea; in the parts. Always treat leaps as an exception and follow them with opposite stepwise. I find that this works remarkably well even in completely atonal music.

[ZacPB189]

http://www.abruckner.com/Data/Downloads ... _organ.pdf
This is a prelude by Bruckner for organ from a site called abruckner.com (where there's also a recording in one of the past "download of the month"s). It's a very chromatic piece and Bruckner broke a few voice-leading rules, as composers will often do (yes, even Bach), but the harmonization is very clean and fluid. His motets were also beautifully harmonized. This helps me alot . Folk and/or New age music is the best starting point, though. Loreena McKennitt (Full Circle, Bonny Swans, Blacksmith, and Highway Man are a few really good examples) and Enya (Orinoco Flow (though it's rather repeatetive...),Smaointe, Miss Clare Remembers, and Exile are the examples I'd use of her) are good examples of good-sounding harmonies.

But... I cannot ever stress this enough: YOU have to like the way it SOUNDS, and what sounds good isn't always "musically correct". I've used parallel 5th MANY times, and I've done various chords under an often unrelated pitch in sort of a suspention-like manner. Also, don't try atonal music until you feel comfortable with tonal music, because knowlege of tonality is essential when trying to avoid it.

That's my 2 cents. I hope it helps .

[allegroamabile]

Thanks for the advice. Any suggestions on good harmonic progressions?

[ZacPB189]

For chord progressions, it's best to look to folk-songs or old baroque trumpet tunes to start with. Bruckner is still a good idea, though, because he was very good at tonal, chromatic progressions, if that's what you're looking for. There's a billion or two ways to progress chords; write the root note of the chords as you write your melody if you think of them at the same time.

[vinteuil]

A textbook is a good investment. A teacher is a great one, if possible. Also, Heinichen's Harmoniche Labyrinths are great voice-leading excercises for the advanced (and extremely fun for functional harmonic analysis

[Lyle Neff]

Another thing is to be sure not to limit yourself to chords in root position.

[ZacPB189]

For chord progressions, it's best to look to folk-songs or old baroque trumpet tunes to start with. Bruckner is still a good idea, though, because he was very good at tonal, chromatic progressions, if that's what you're looking for. There's a billion or two ways to progress chords; write the root note of the chords as you write your melody if you think of them at the same time.

I completely forgot to say :
Once you know the chords you have (by writing the root note, if that's easier for you), then invert chords, add suspentions, etc....

[allegroamabile]

Thanks, this advice has really helped. Any suggestions on doubling notes?

[vinteuil]

No parallels in general is a good idea.
Double the root in root position. For final cadences, you may need to triple.
Double the third or root in first inversion.
Double the fifth in second inversion.

[allegroamabile]

and doubling the leading is always a bad idea?

[ZacPB189]

When you say doubling, do you mean it in terms of two different colors (z.B. Cello and Euphonium), or in terms of voices (like the alto and soprano lines being in unison for a chorale or something similar)?

Also, NEVER, and I mean NEVER, double the third unless you ABSOLUTELY have to, unless the doubling of the third is a unison. (There are more exceptions, but those have to do more with instrument ranges (z.B. it's unwise to have trumpets and flutes doubling in the same octave for range reasons).)

Parallels... These are tricky. They may not be you're friends, but they are far from being your enemies. Parallels, 5th especially, have been used with great affect by a vast amount of composers. Even in terms of early chants, it was common to harmonize the chant by singing it in 5ths. If you're writing chorales, however, it is best to try avoiding parallels as best you can. All in all, treat them like aquantances. Don't use them all the time, but don't never use them either.

[Peterdyson49]

Harmonisation implies thinking vertically but I would suggest that you think linearly as well…. A melody is just a line in sound, and is broken into phrases that take you in time from point A to B and then point B to C. etc. Sometimes there is a strong sense that the individual phrases complement or answer each other so that as a whole piece there is sense of being taken from a beginning to an end. Adding the bass line becomes the next important step because it will imply what the inner harmonies want to do to Your Ear. If you restrict your lines to phrase lengths that you can “sing” in one breath it can help. A teacher of composition told me early on “never write what you can’t hear”, and with the music notational programmes around it is now easy to sit and listen repeatedly to a section of music and play with lines so you can let Your Ear tell you what seems to work and what You find unsatisfactory. When you listen to sections as a whole you get used to hearing this journey from A to B and are less likely to get stuck on what might feel an awkward point within it if you were to stop the phrase there. You pass through it to get to from A to B and the awkwardness (dissonance) can become an effective part of the whole. Listening to the whole phrase will let Your Ear take it all in and will tell You when You have resolved it. Sometimes your inner ear will “hear” the missing notes that want to go in.

Try not writing for keyboard for a while: it is much easier to hear the lines as lines if you write for individual orchestral instruments: the individual colours of woodwind instruments make it easy to listen. Look at scores that you like and see how they are put together and why they work to please Your Ear.. though not necessarily someone else’s . You will soon come across repetition and sequences and a point where your ear finds them boring…. and places or whole sections of pieces where there is only one line at work (on paper there may be many different notes but it is a thick line going in one direction before it dissolves into several lines) or a line that has a lot of “texture” to support you from A to B.

Difficult to use words to describe music…. but changing one accidental can change the whole “colour” of a phrase and where it is pushing to go. The process of discovery is one of fun and excitement.

Enjoy it.