Information AboutParallel Fifths |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT CONSECUTIVE FIFTHS | |
| chord progressions | |
| counterpoint | |
| shifts of level | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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COMMON PRACTICE PERIOD: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS During the Common Practice Period , use of consecutive fifths was strongly discouraged. This is primarily due to the nature of the Voice Leading involved in four-part or SATB harmony, which stresses individual voices maintaining their identities. Partially due to the Overtone Series , this individuality between two parts may temporarily be lost when two voices a fifth apart move in parallel motion. CONSECUTIVE OCTAVES This loss of individuality is also apparent in cases where parallel octaves occur. These are therefore also generally ruled out entirely, in any passages in which the parts in question are expected to be melodically independent. HIDDEN CONSECUTIVES With hidden consecutives there is a single perfect fifth or an octave, occurring between two parts intended to be melodically independent, that is approached by similar motion and with the higher of the two parts not moving by step. There is sometimes an expectation that these will be avoided altogether; but sometimes they are permitted between inner parts only, and not between the outermost parts. Or similar complex contraints may be applied; the details differ considerably by date within the common practice period, and even by individual composer. SPECIAL USES AND EXCEPTIONS There is a prolific example of consecutive fifths in the parodying of medieval plainsong chant. In contemporary times, if a composer wishes to mimic the sound of Gregorian monks intoning Plainsong in a cathedral they will generally use fifths and move them in parallel motion. However, this process lacks authenticity, as plainsong chant was originally sung in Unison , not in fifths. The creation of the myth grew from the occasional singer accidentally singing the chant exactly a perfect fifth above (or below) where it should be. To the untrained ear the two notes can sound very similar, so the mistake is understandable. DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROHIBITION As Classical Music progressed, the sound of consecutive fifths was deemed universally to be unpleasant. Composers were careful to avoid their appearance in work, either in one part (such as the left hand of a keyboard work), or in two parts moving independently (such as a tenor and a bass line). This is not to say that the interval of a fifth was not allowed - on the contrary, it forms a very strong and crucial base to many musical works. Only the consecutive use of different fifths was forbidden. Also, the fifths did not have to be undisguised, or alone as the only two notes of a melodic line. The fifths may form part of a chord of any number of notes, and may be set well apart from the rest of the Harmony , or finely interwoven in its midst. But the interval was always to be quitted by any movement provided it did not land on another fifth. Consecutive fifths did not just apply to perfect fifths. Diminished Fifth s moving in parallel motion were also disapproved. Therefore a move from C and G to E and B flat was just as avoided as a move from C and G to E and B. The religious avoidance of consecutive fifths is one of the major reasons for the doubt of the authorship of the famous Toccata And Fugue In D Minor , attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach , as Bach himself was one of the most accomplished composers that ever lived at avoiding this harmonic movement, and the work abounds with them. As music moved on into the 19th century, composers like Grieg helped to liberate the consecutive fifth in works like 'Les Cloches', until they became commonplace and completely acceptable by the 20th century. But even to this day they are studied by music students to aid their harmonic subtlety and develop their aural and theoretical awareness. The identification and avoidance of perfect fifths is a standard part of instruction in classical drones which Shift in disregard of the rule forbidding consecutive fifths. The disregard is justified by the fact that the essential objection to consecutive fifths is that they produce the effect of shifting hurdy-gurdy Drones ." (van der Merwe 1989, p.210) REFERENCES
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