A Treatise on Simple Counterpoint in Forty Lessons

by Friedrich J. Lehmann

LESSON XVII

FOURTH SPECIES

Fig. 116.

When the syncopation is a suspension or retardation, it is treated the same as in harmony.

The retardation should always be prepared by the leading-tone.

When the syncopated note belongs to the harmony of the measure, it may be left by a skip or stepwise progression. [[Fig. 117.]]

Fig. 117.

The third may be omitted on the strong beat in this species, provided the part having fourth species skips to the missing third, as at [Fig. 117a].

Consecutive fifths, but not octaves, are saved by the suspension. Whenever they occur, do not use the note of resolution as preparation of a suspension, or tie it into the next measure (a), since it is really the passing seventh, and that does not lend itself well to either of the above, except in sequence as at b. [[Fig. 118.]]

Fig. 118.