60: Advice writing for different voices

Four-part writing has essentially three layers, each with different guidelines.


The first layer is the soprano. Here, when writing chorales, think not just of the trained singers in the (church) choir, but also of the untrained singers in the congregation. There’s a reason why, on Holy Saturday night, I warm up my voice for a good while—because whoever wrote “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” spanning a tenth did not forsee that a good-but-untrained baritone might get very tired after a 3-plus-hour liturgy with a lot of singing and the expectation that I hit the absolute highest note I can manage in the climactic moment of the recessional hymn. (If only choir directors would put it in B-flat rather than C, I’d be much more comfortable; alas, this never happens.) It’s generally best practice to write soprano parts with relatively small ranges (around an octave; God Save the King/Queen covers a seventh, I think—and look how iconic it is!), memorable lines, few leaps (except those that outline a chord), and no awkward intervals like a tritone.

The second layer is the two middle voices—the alto and tenor. If you’ve ever tried to replicate your grandmother’s secret recipe, and you get close, but it’s never as good as Grandma’s, and then you have her dish and it’s perfect every time, then you have an idea of what the difference between “great” and “just OK” middle-voice writing and singing is. The middle voices, since they are in the middle are often hidden most of the time, with a job mostly of filling out the harmony. You don’t notice them while they’re there—it just sounds way better with them, when they sing well, than when they’re not there, or they are, and sing badly. They are the often overlooked secret ingredient. Spacing between them is critical, since it keeps spacing balanced overall, or throws off that balance. Here, you have a golden opportunity to explore interesting cases of contrary motion, to avoid the pitfalls of parallel fifths and other errors of part writing. In general, I like to, as much as possible, keep the tenor and alto parts as narrow as I can; however, that does not mean that it is not possible to write very fun and engaging middle-voice parts.

Finally, the base layer—the basses— is what really sets the tone of the whole phrase, even more than the soprano. It’s important to think of each chord, and the movements between them, and the sequences of chords that are strung together, far more as bottom-up than top-down. The bass is the all-important voice in harmony. You could, in theory, get by in a pinch with just a soprano and a bass, but then again, you’d be missing that middle-voice secret sauce. Writing for the bass, you’re freer to leap around. Leap all you want, but be conscious of what you’re asking your singers, so be sure to include some conjunct writing too; this also helps facilitate greater harmonic exploration by means of incorporating inversions. As long as you know what you’re doing, and you don’t cause any trouble, invert away—it’s a great way to make the bassline, and the whole phrase, more interesting. Basses are, as I said, the base layer, the foundation; if they’re solid, everything else built around them harmonically will be. Great basses make everyone else that much better.

 

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