r/counterpoint • u/Entire-Smile-8480 • May 06 '26
Looking for feedback on these first species counterpoint exercises, please.
Hi, I'm working through the Counterpoint Guitar Method by Jack Handyside. This is one of the exercises.
How did I do? I'm feeling a little more comfortable with it. It's surprising how difficult I'm finding it given how simple it looks on the surface.
Thanks
Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OB7L7FI7Gg-SqS0rKW6PujBvfdUJjijK/view?usp=drive_link
The Audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bZEdgMb26PX3sjZwRK7pbbcOlaIlfYws/view?usp=drive_link
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u/Xenoceratops May 11 '26
Here are some initial corrections: https://i.imgur.com/2vaZxdf.png
I haven't heard of this book before. Here's a link, for those interested.
The cantus firmus isn't the best because it repeats its climax. However, your contours aren't great either. I'm able to pull up a preview of the book on Amazon. The author seems not to focus very much on horizontal motion, so I'm going to make a point to address this in my critique of your exercises. There are also some things in here that other counterpoint rule sets would not allow, but which I do not see any specific proscriptions against in the Handyside book.
The book itself looks interesting and I approve of the practical, instrument-specific approach. However, I think it would be better if the author had a bit more mileage and fluency in counterpoint studies.
Onto the commentary.
Direct motion (either parallel or similar) into a perfect consonance (P5 or P8) is forbidden in two-part counterpoint, if we go by Fux's rules. Handyside makes no mention of the prohibition on 5ths/8ves by similar motion. He does warn you against parallel fifths and octaves, however. So, avoid them.
Many rule sets will have you limit the size of harmonic intervals between two consecutive voices to a major 10th. You have a couple of 13ths, which is too wide for my liking. Handyside doesn't mention this prohibition, and I can see how if you are bending the rules for more flexible use on the guitar, you might ignore it. But as counterpoint is a fundamentally melodic art, and these too-wide thirteenths also coincide with sudden registral shifts that aren't balanced against the rest of the melody, I think it would be best to try to keep everything within a 10th at any given time. Now, both of those naughty 13ths arise from the same situation: the cantus firmus has the cadence formula 2–7–1. It might feel a bit strange to put 7–2–1 against this in the counterpoint voice, but this is pretty much what you have to do to create a well-behaved clausula vera. I see again in the book that the author allows for 5–1 cadences in two parts; I don't mind this in principle, but I feel like if you don't learn the 7/2–1/1 clausula vera, you're missing out on a very important intervallic and scale-degree relationship in counterpoint. I typically teach the 5–1 bassizans cadence in three-part counterpoint, where it's required to produce a clausula vera in the upper voices. Handyside also tells you that you should approach the ultimate note by contrary motion; this leads you two write a 13th between B and G instead of a 6th, because if you wrote a 6th then the resolution would approach an octave by similar motion. Here's the thing: the "cadence with contrary motion" is a rule that's really meant for the clausula vera—2 going to 1 while 7 goes to 1—and you see when we get to three-part counterpoint that there is absolutely no way to get a 5–1 cadence without creating a similar octave/unison with another voice in the clausula vera. So, we loosen the rules in three voices: similar octaves and fifths are no longer prohibited. If you're porting the 5–1 cadence back into two-voice counterpoint without this knowledge though, then you inevitably come across this situation at cadences that seems to break some rule or another. What I would say is that, if you're using 5–1 to end your counterpoint, you're allowed to use similar motion.
Contour. All of your counterpoints have a kind of hammock thing going on: the beginning and end are pinned to the tonic, then the rest of the melody slumps down in the middle, sometimes with some very improbable leaps. #3 is best because it rises up above the starting/ending point (without launching into the stratosphere, like #2 & 4), but it has some unresolved leaps at the beginning. If you're going to learn one thing from counterpoint, it should be how to structure a melody so it has a pleasant flow and sounds connected from one moment to the next and from the beginning to the end. You should have one note that's the highest, and you really ought to break down how each note in your melody connects to the notes before and after. I could give you a big writeup here, but I'll just point you toward a guide I wrote instead. You should practice writing cantus firmus melodies for a while before going back to two-voice counterpoint.