Hey,

Is it possible to write a gavotte or another baroque dance by almost writing a melody in that style/form, then doing 4 part harmony for it but then just deleting the alto and tenor parts?

or are there special rules for 2 part writing....

thanks...

will...

Yes probably, it just would be quite boring to listen to i would imagine.

How can I make it more interesting?

I'll answer my own question: look at some of Bach's gavottes you lazy ######!

but...they're so complicated

You would find a lot of very good material to study in the ABRSM publication, Baroque Keyboard Pieces, Book One. These are easier and very nicely edited for young players. Play your way through these and you will have a far better idea of writing in this style. Good luck. You sound really keen on your mucis studies.

Try looking at other composers aswell, the only way you will be able to write one is to have experience playing them, and having looked at a wide range of them you will really understand how to write them:
I can write 4 part harmony easily (albeit using parallells) because i play alot of chordal exercises, make up alot of chord sequences for Music GCSE projects etc. Another thing i do is buy cheap music in sale bins in music shops, and just read it, look for patterens etc, comepare to others of a similar style, what do they have in common, and more. You seem to be well into music and want to teach when your old, I do aswell *high 5!*, and the above help so much no doubt in the future when pupils ask why a Gavotte is a Gavotte etc, and the wider you read into a subject, the more you will understand etc. Buy, borrow or do whatever you need to get ahold of a book of gavottes, or whatever, and look through them. Draw circles round the bits that are repeated, in both hands. Now, come up with a melody or however many there are in the peice you are studying, and put it in the same place it was in the score your looking at, do this for every section and you will have your own composition: then from doing that you will know the form of a Gavotte. Do this with several different composers, and you will get a fairly basic outline, and then you can do your own from scratch. If anything there doesnt really make sense, PM me... ive been watching TV whilst typing this so no doubt havent explained it very well.

Alex

Thanks for the kind replies guys, I'm currently doing GCSE music. The internal assessment arrives when we get back from break...hopefully.

Yea, music is kind of my life , it's all I've really done this holiday, still got some coursework to do...some subjects are so pointless

it's nearly Christmas !!!

Speaking of Christmas, I have just adapted a hymn melody to play on piano

It doesn't follow strict 4 part harmony rules because that's for choir not piano hehe

I think I'll buy that "Baroque Keyboard Pieces, part 1". I do find it good looking at music, especially now because I just read a little book called 'the form of music', and now I understand some stuff about the fugue , and baroque dance suite.

will

The "rules" for two part writing are different. For example a bare 4th is considered a dissonance in 2 parts, but a fourth over a third is considered a consonance in 3 parts (because the three notes together are a triad in first inversion, so you hear the top note as the root of the triad, rather than as a fourth above another note).

In any case it is easier to write two parts, rather than write four parts and delete two of them!

You need a basic textbook on harmony and/or counterpoint.

Dont forget to look at Bach's Two Part Inventions ! Thats how to do it !

I have Anne BUtterworth's harmony book but that mainly covers four part harmony, not 2