![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Counterpoint!
Aug. 6th, 2007 10:42 amThe Kingdom of Lochac has a pretty nifty bardic webpage. Upon that webpage is the archive of their performing arts newletter, the Muse. And in volume 6 of the Muse is an article entitled, "Counterpoint by the Numbers." Just like Guido d'Arezzo wrote a guide for instamagically writing melodies (it's about 3/4 of the way down the page) in the 11th century, this Campion fellow wrote the Idiot's Guide to Counterpoint in the late 17th. Given a bass line, it's a plug-n-chug algorithm to come up with four-part harmonies.
Methods like that tend to give... decent results. They will not offend the ear. Neither will they dazzle with delightfully unexpected musical play. But it is exactly the kind of tool I've been hoping to find. I don't really know nothin' 'bout writin' no counterpoint, and it would be really useful to know something about it to create multiple parts for the Storvik Music Ensemble.
Although it would also be useful to teach people's ears that a good deal of pre-Renaissance music was monophonic, even if that's booooring to their polyphonically-inclined ears. I love it when I perform 12th century music and get told I need more complicated accompaniment. No I do not. Do not be comin' round here with your four-part Playford and late period Italian stuff, gettin' all up in my cantigas.
Methods like that tend to give... decent results. They will not offend the ear. Neither will they dazzle with delightfully unexpected musical play. But it is exactly the kind of tool I've been hoping to find. I don't really know nothin' 'bout writin' no counterpoint, and it would be really useful to know something about it to create multiple parts for the Storvik Music Ensemble.
Although it would also be useful to teach people's ears that a good deal of pre-Renaissance music was monophonic, even if that's booooring to their polyphonically-inclined ears. I love it when I perform 12th century music and get told I need more complicated accompaniment. No I do not. Do not be comin' round here with your four-part Playford and late period Italian stuff, gettin' all up in my cantigas.
