TERRY EDER: Hello to everyone out there in AP Music Theory
world.
My name is Terry Eder and I teach AP Music Theory
at Lovejoy High School in Lucas, Texas just East of Dallas.
In this video, I'm going to show you
how to set up a plan for answering free response
question five.
If you want to work through this question with me,
just click on the link over the video now
and you can download the PDF of the question featured
in this session.
So let's get going.
Question five is from section II-part A of the free response
questions.
Question five.
So it's really down toward the end of the test.
It's right before the very last thing
on the test, sight singing.
So we're beginning we're going to be
talking about in section II-part A, question number five today.
Here's the question.
And I want to back up one thing and say
that the three part writing questions
and harmonization of a melody are timed out at 45 minutes.
So you have to judge that time for yourself,
how much time you're going to spend on each question.
And there is a suggested time for each of the questions.
In this case, question five suggested time 15 minutes, OK?
And you can see that it's the figured based question.
I want to give you some steps to a plan for part writing
this question in four parts.
Beginning with number one.
First and foremost spelled the chords correctly.
I suggest writing a chord matrix to be
sure about your spelling of the chords.
Then you want to transfer that to the question.
So you write the chords and the Roman numerals
indicated by the figured based symbols
and we'll talk about that in just a few moments
when we start writing the question.
Number three.
After you've written the Roman numerals and the chords,
you write a Soprano melody that creates good counterpoint
with the Bass voice and use plenty of contrary and oblique
motion when you're doing that to keep yourself from having
any unacceptable parallels.
After you've written that Soprano to go with the Bass.
Step four.
Complete the alto and tenor voices
and use mostly stepwise motion.
Finally, number five.
Step five, check between all of the voices for any unacceptable
parallels or resolutions.
So here's the chord matrix.
And I put a template here but you
can freehand this particular matrix
and do it really, really quick.
OK, so let's write a chord matrix then.
If you noticed this key of the piece
is E-flat major so I'm going to write an e-flat right there
in front of the Roman numerals.
And then you've got I, IV, and V.
Those are major in a major key, II, III, and VI.
I'm not going to worry about three
too much, although we'll know what the chord is III,
II, III, and VI are minor and seven is a diminished chord.
So here's what you did.
You have to know the key signature.
In the key of E-flat, there are three flats, B-flat, E-flat,
and A-flat.
I'll just write them right up here.
And then you have to know the tonic chord in the key.
Well, that would be E-flat, G, and B-flat.
And then you just write the letters alphabetically
as fast as you can.
E, F, G, A, B, C, D. Hopefully, you can read my handwriting.
G, A, B, C, D, E, F, and B-flat C, D E F, G, A. And then
sometimes we have a two, seven.
So we'll put an E up there.
And definitely we have five seven, we'll put in A up there.
And then you have to put the key signature in.
Wow!
That's a horrible F. I'm going to rewrite that one.
F like that.
OK, and then so we were going to write B-flat, E-flat, A-flat,
B-flat, E-flat, A-flat, and then B-flat, E-flat, A-flat,
and both of these are flats.
E-flat, and A-flat.
So there's our chord matrix.
So you know what each of the cords.
You can't go wrong.
You can't spell them wrong.
Let's transfer that to the actual question.
Question number five.
Now, I already wrote the chords down there on the bottom.
And consequently, we need to talk about figured base.
First of all, the first chord is given to us.
So it's an E-flat, E-flat, G, and B flat.
And so this is a one chord in the key of E-flat.
And you could look back over there on the chord matrix.
By the way, on the question page,
there is a facing page that is a piece of manuscript paper.
That's where you can write that chord matrix
and then you're looking at it while you're
looking at the question.
Right now, we have to go back and forth.
OK, so if you see on the third beat here,
nothing under the bass note.
There's no figured based symbol, that
means that this is a root position chord, OK?
And it is E, F, G, A, B, C, that's a C, E-flat, G chord.
And that would be a VI chord, OK?
That's a VI chord.
So let's write a VI right on under that one.
And then there also is another one down here
and it's the same C, E-flat, G, that's a VI chord.
OK, like that.
Now, figured base symbols.
Sometimes they look exactly like inversion symbols, OK?
So this would be like a first inversion triad,
if you know that that's a first inversion simple--
inversion symbol.
But really what figure base means is intervals
above a given base notes.
So in the second beat, we would count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
And we would land right there on B-flat.
And then, of course, there is also if there's just a VI,
this was there shorthand for performance practice
in the Baroque period.
There's an understood three.
One, two, three.
So there's also an F in that chord.
And then you put it in thirds order, B flat, D, and F.
And you can look back over here B-flat, D, F, that's a V chord.
So this is going to be a V. And we'll
put the inversion symbol now down next to the Roman numeral.
First inversion V chord.
Next, over here for three.
We know that is as an inversion symbol.
Also that's a second inversion seventh chord four three.
But in figured base, it means one, two,
three above that base note and one,
two, three, four, that would be this note right here.
And so this is a VII chord.
And where you see that second the top note of the second
is the root of the chord.
So this is an F, A-flat, C, E-flat chord.
And that is a II minor or III like this, OK?
Try and make your writing as neat as you
possibly can six four, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
This is on the downbeat of the second measure.
IV, 1, 2, 3, 4.
So this is a--
oh, it uses the notes of the I chord.
So we're going to write it as a I down here
and it would be major, and then write this six four.
This is what we call a cadential six four
and so it comes at cadence points
and it actually functions as a V chord.
That's why that two can go to I because it's really
like II to V.
And then we have a root position on the second beat VII
chord like this.
And that's going to be five seven like so.
And now, we have all of the chords written.
So that's step two.
And then I'm going to erase all how we figured that out.
And then, we're going to write the third step.
This is a good melody.
So I'm going to do this pretty fast but we've used E-flat.
These are given notes D, C, C again, B-flat, B-flat, we
doubled the V in that chord, which is what you're supposed
to do the double the V of the chord in the second version
six four and then we use b-flat and then we use C. OK,
are those were given?
So now we're going to write a melody.
I'm going to I'm going to try and use
contrarian oblique motion.
So rather than go down to F, I'm going
to go up to B-flat right here.
Oh, well, that is a wonky stem.
Let me try one more time.
That's better.
And then I'm going to go still in contrary motion.
So I'm going to go up to C right here.
Like that.
So I use C. Over here, I use B-flat.
And then I'm going to come--
this is oblique so I can go down or up.
Rather than go up to E-flat, I'm going to go down to A-flat,
kind of turned back because that makes a nice melody.
And then for that A-flat--
and by the way, I forgot one thing.
This is a chordal VII, that E flat.
So it needs to resolve down by a step in the next chord.
Oh, there there is no D in that next chord.
So that means it has to hold I'm going
to draw a little arrow like that,
it has to hold on E-flat until it can resolve
and it can resolve in the next chord.
So it resolves to D there.
And the A-flat is also a chordal VII,
it has to resolve down to G like this.
OK?
Like that.
And so those little arrows help remind us.
So with this A-flat, I'm going to go back up to B-flat
in contrary motion.
Like so.
And then I'm going to go down to A-flat, like this.
So I use B-flat and I've used A-flat
and then I'm going to end on G right here like this.
G and so then I've used G. And then for the fifth the step--
the fourth step, I guess it is.
We go back and we write the Alto in Tenor end.
And so we've already checked off what we've used--
I need to check A-flat right there.
So now we're going to put in the Alto and Tenor.
So we need an F and we need a double something.
Well, I'm going to double B-flat.
And I can keep that common and I'm
going to step up to F in the Alto.
On the third beat, I need an E-flat and a G, OK?
If I tried to put E-flat into Tenor, it wouldn't work.
So I'm going to put E-flat in the Alto
and I'm going to put G in the Tenor.
And then on the fourth beat, I need an F and an E-flat.
Well, I can keep e-flat coming in the Alto
and then I'm going to step down to F and the tenor.
Works out great.
There's another wonky stem.
Works out perfectly.
OK.
And then I need an E-flat and a G in this next one.
So ooh, keep E-flat coming or that Alto part is
looking fantastic and then I've got G,
step back up in the Tenor.
Second beat, I need a D on an F. So I'm just going to step down
and I'm going to step down to D like so.
And then I've got E-flat and I'm just going to--
I'm going to double E-flat in this VI chord
like this in the Alto and also on the Tenor.
So then, we've got it all written.
It looks pretty good.
Now, we have to go back and check between it
for any unacceptable parallels like in from the second
to the third beat.
It looks like we would have between the Alto and the Bass.
But that's D up to F, and C up to E-flat.
Thirds and parallel motion are great.
They work fine.
And there's no similar motion that would
be parallel in that next one.
Then we've got between Tenor and Soprano.
But that's F up to A-flat, G up to B-flat, that's fine.
Oh-ow!
Now, look what we have.
We've got fifths in parallel motion, OK?
We really need to check those out.
Well, E-flat up to B-flat is a perfect fifth.
And oh, D up to A-flat.
So that's a diminished fifth.
So these are called unequal fifths, perfect fifth
to diminish fifth works perfect, that happens in music a lot.
So that one is OK and then the last one
that these right here between Soprano,
and Tenor, and Bass, and Alto.
Those are all OK.
All right.
And so this is like you would get VI, 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6
you would get 6 points for spelling the chords correctly.
You would get 1, 2 3,4, 5,6, 7 points for the Roman numerals.
And then voice leading into a chord, two points and out,
two points.
And in this particular case I think we've probably
got them all correct.
I think I raised my six up there.
So 6.
And then we got 12.
And so this is a 25 point question.
So that looks pretty good.
I think we did well.
Let's move to our checklist and see if we can just double check
what we did.
And so here's our checklist for part writing from figured base.
So first of all, spell the courts correctly.
Yes, we got 6 points for doing that.
Transfer from the court matrix to the chords and the FRQ,
we did that.
Write a good melody.
I think that melody worked really, really nicely.
Then right the out one Tenor using plenty
of stepwise motion.
Nobody skips, the only skip we had was a third.
And then finally, check for unacceptable parallel motion
between the voices and any incorrect resolutions.
So with that said, we did a pretty good job.
Now, go practice and find some other ones
of part writing from Roman from figure base
that you can practice on.
Thanks for watching.