36 rules

Score conventions and score order

How is a score assembled — order, braces, barline groups, labels, transposition?

The conventions that operate above the single staff: score order for an ensemble, what a brace groups versus a bracket, which staves share a continuous barline, how parts are labelled and abbreviated, and how transposing instruments are written. Also the notational conventions specific to teaching material — species counterpoint layout and chorale short score.

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Brace vs. bracket vs. sub-bracket — what each groups
Brace connects staves that ONE performer reads as a single continuous system — piano, harp, organ, and (by extension in choral engraving) a two-stave SATB choir short score. Bracket connects staves belonging to DIFFERENT performers who are nonetheless one conceptual group — an open-score choir (one stave per singer), a woodwind or brass section, or Gradus's fugue open-score voices. A sub-bracket (thin bracket nested inside a larger bracket) further groups instrument pairs within a bracketed family when the family has more than ~3 staves (e.g. the two horns within a 4-5-stave brass bracket).
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Cambiata and suspension — the two named licensed-dissonance exceptions
The nota cambiata (3rd species): a 4-note formula — step DOWN into a dissonance on what would otherwise be a strong sub-beat, then a LEAP DOWN a third, then step UP, then step UP again — is the one Fuxian figure where a dissonance is licensed without being left by step, because the following leap-of-a-third resolves the overall shape by phrase's end. Suspension (4th species, and 7-6/4-3/9-8 figures in free counterpoint): the dissonant note must be PREPARED as a consonance tied over from the previous strong beat, and must RESOLVE DOWN BY STEP.
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Chorale short score — four voices, two staves, stems opposed WHEN SHARED
A four-part chorale is engraved SATB on two staves (S+A on treble, T+B on bass), not as four separate staves — Gould explicitly gives this as the standard vocal short-score layout. Within each stave, the upper of the two voices sharing it takes stems UP and the lower takes stems DOWN, regardless of pitch — stem direction signals VOICE IDENTITY, not the ordinary pitch-based rule. This forcing applies ONLY when two voices actually share a stave; a voice that has a stave to itself (e.g. a 3-voice S/A+B texture, where Bass alone occupies the bass stave) correctly keeps natural pitch-based stems.
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Chordal seventh resolution
The seventh of any seventh chord resolves DOWN by step, IN THE SAME VOICE, to a chord tone of the following harmony — whether approached by step or held over as a suspension (4th-species-style 7-6 figure), in which case the direction is preserved even though the TIMING may be delayed by tie/syncopation.
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Doubling rules by chord type and inversion
Root-position triad: double the root by default (third/fifth acceptable for smoothness); never double the leading tone or a chromatically altered tone. First-inversion triad: prefer doubling soprano's note or the bass (chordal third); never double the leading tone or chordal seventh. Second-inversion (6/4) triad: ALWAYS double the bass (chordal fifth) — firm, covering cadential/passing/pedal 6/4 alike. Diminished triad: double the THIRD, never root or fifth. Dominant/any seventh chord: never double the leading tone (third) or the seventh; if a voice must be omitted, omit the fifth before ever omitting the seventh or third.
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Fugue answer — tonal vs. real, and the modulating-answer case
A fugal answer is a REAL answer (exact transposition of the subject up a perfect 5th, or down a perfect 4th) UNLESS: (1) the subject's OPENING note is ^5 of the home key — the answer's opening note must be ^1 rather than the ^2 a literal up-a-5th transposition would produce, avoiding premature dominant-key establishment; or (2) the subject itself modulates to the dominant within its own span — the answer must correspondingly modulate back toward the tonic for the portion answering the subject's dominant-key material.
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Fugue exposition — entry pitch level alternates tonic/dominant
In a standard fugal exposition, successive voice entries alternate between the SUBJECT (tonic pitch level) and the ANSWER (dominant pitch level) — canonically Subject-Answer-Subject for 3 voices, Subject-Answer-Subject-Answer (or the reverse) for 4 — but whichever pattern is chosen, it must strictly alternate; two consecutive entries at the SAME pitch level breaks the exposition's defining alternation.
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Leading tone resolution and the inner-voice exception
The leading tone (^7) must resolve UP by step to tonic whenever it appears in an OUTER voice (soprano) — no exception in the outer voice, ever. The recognized exception: when ^7 falls in an INNER voice (alto/tenor) as part of a V→vi (deceptive) resolution, or when resolving it upward would force a forbidden doubling or a parallel-perfect violation elsewhere, it MAY instead move down to ^5 — but only in an inner voice, and only when the alternative genuinely avoids a worse fault.
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Melodic augmented/diminished intervals and the compensating-step (recovery) rule
A melodic augmented 2nd and melodic augmented 4th/diminished 5th (the melodic tritone) are forbidden as direct melodic motion in species counterpoint and strongly discouraged generally. Separately, the 'compensating step' rule: any melodic leap larger than a third should be followed by stepwise motion in the OPPOSITE direction, filling in the leap and keeping the line's contour smooth.
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Parallel (consecutive) perfect fifths and octaves
Two voices moving in SIMILAR motion (same direction) from one perfect 5th (or perfect octave/unison) to another perfect 5th (or octave/unison) is forbidden — the voices are perceived as merging into one line. This applies ONLY to similar motion: the identical interval reached by CONTRARY motion (voices moving in opposite directions) or OBLIQUE motion (one voice stationary) is not a parallel-perfect violation and is routine, unremarkable voice leading — most commonly at cadences, where contrary motion into an octave/unison is the PREFERRED cadential approach. This is the one rule every authority agrees on without qualification.
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SATB voice ranges (MIDI)
Each of the four chorale/species voices is kept within a comfortable pedagogical range — narrower than a real singer's full range — so student part-writing stays singable and each voice occupies a clearly distinct register: Soprano C4-A5 (MIDI 60-81), Alto G3-D5 (MIDI 55-74), Tenor C3-G4 (MIDI 48-67), Bass E2-C4 (MIDI 40-60). These match audit-satb-voices.cjs's own MIDI convention (`midi('C4')` = (4+1)*12 = 60) and standard college part-writing pedagogy ranges.
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Species counterpoint exercise — cantus firmus notation and stave assignment
The cantus firmus is notated in whole notes (semibreves) regardless of species, on its own stave (or its own voice line if stacked), and does not receive dynamics, articulations, or ornaments — it is a given melody, not an expressive performance line. The counterpoint stave carries the species' characteristic rhythm. The species number and mode should be identifiable from the exercise, per Fuxian pedagogy as codified in modern editions (Jeppesen, Salzer/Schachter) and echoed by Gould's general 'give every stave its own clear function' principle.
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Species number claim must match the actual note-to-CF rhythmic ratio
A species exercise's stated species (1-5) must match the actual ratio of counterpoint notes to each cantus-firmus note: 1st species = 1 CP note per CF note; 2nd species = 2 per CF note (or 3, in an explicitly triple-meter variant); 3rd species = 4 per CF note (or 3 in triple meter); 4th species = 1 per CF note but SYNCOPATED (CP onset does not align with the CF onset); 5th species ('florid') deliberately mixes ratios/rhythms of the first four within one exercise. A lesson labeled '2nd species' whose CP voice actually runs in continuous eighth notes (8 per CF note) is mislabeled and teaches the wrong ratio as an example of the stated species.
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Strong-beat consonance requirement, per species
1st species (note-against-note): every simultaneity must be a consonance (unison, 3rd, 5th, 6th, octave; the perfect 4th is dissonant against a bass-position CF, consonant between upper voices). 2nd species (2:1): the DOWNBEAT of each pair must be consonant; the offbeat may be a passing/neighboring dissonance. 3rd species (4:1): beat 1 of each group of 4 must be consonant, except the cambiata figure; beats 2-4 may carry passing/neighbor dissonances. 4th species (syncopated): the note tied into the downbeat may be dissonant if consonant in its previous weak-beat position — an explicit exception to the downbeat-consonance rule.
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Transposing instruments — written vs. sounding pitch and per-instrument key signature
A transposing instrument's part is written at a pitch differing from concert (sounding) pitch by the instrument's transposition interval, and its key signature is transposed by the same interval — e.g. a Bb clarinet in a piece sounding in C major is WRITTEN in D major: the WRITTEN pitch sits ABOVE the sounding pitch by a major 2nd (a Bb clarinet sounds a major 2nd LOWER than written). A concert-pitch (score) presentation shows all instruments already transposed to sounding pitch with no individual key-signature offsets. Both are valid depending on stated purpose, but a document must be internally consistent about which one it is.
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Unprepared and unresolved dissonance
Any dissonant interval against the prevailing harmony (or CF, in species) must be accounted for by a recognized figure: passing tone (approached/left by step, same direction), neighbor tone (approached/left by step, opposite directions, returning to start), appoggiatura (approached by leap, left by step), or suspension (prepared as a consonance on the previous strong beat, tied over, resolving down by step). A dissonance matching none of these is unprepared/unresolved — forbidden in strict species writing (1st-3rd species forbid ANY strong-beat dissonance outright).
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4th species cadence — the final bar suspends the syncopation pattern
In 4th species (syncopated) counterpoint, the cadence cannot be reached while preserving the tied-over syncopation figure, because the standard cadential suspension-and-resolution requires the CP's last note to land on the downbeat rather than tied in from the previous bar. Standard practice therefore breaks the syncopation in the final bar (sometimes the second-to-last), presenting the cadential figure as plain note-against-note so the piece can close cleanly — a deliberate, universally-taught EXCEPTION to 'every bar of 4th species is syncopated,' not a lapse in discipline.
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Hidden (direct) fifths and octaves in outer voices
Two voices moving by SIMILAR motion INTO a perfect 5th or octave — even though the prior interval was not itself perfect — is a 'hidden' or 'direct' fifth/octave. Species pedagogy (Fux via Jeppesen) forbids this universally between any two voices. Common-practice four-part-harmony pedagogy (Kostka & Payne; Aldwell & Schachter) narrows the prohibition to the OUTER voices (soprano/bass) specifically, and only when the UPPER voice (soprano) LEAPS rather than moves by step into the perfect interval — if soprano moves by step, the hidden interval is permitted. RECOMMENDATION for Gradus: apply the strict universal rule in species-counterpoint content and the narrower outer-voice-plus-soprano-step-exception rule in chorale/four-part-harmony content, matching what each unit's own textbook teaches.
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Kid-mode simplifications — what may be relaxed vs. what must never be relaxed
Simplifications for a young/beginning learner are legitimate when they REDUCE VISUAL DENSITY without teaching a wrong fact: larger noteheads, fewer bars per system, omitting ornaments/fingering that aren't the lesson's point, treble-clef-only, avoiding cross-staff writing/divisi. Simplifications become illegitimate the moment they teach something that has to be UNLEARNED: an accidental that isn't needed (or a missing needed one), an octave transposition presented as the notated pitch, a wrong stem direction 'for tidiness,' or collapsing a chord to one note where the taught harmony depends on all chord tones being visible.
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Modal cadence formulas (clausula vera, Phrygian) and musica ficta
The standard 'clausula vera' (true cadence): one voice ascends by step to the modal final while another descends by step to the same final (or octave), expanding from a major 6th to an octave (or minor 3rd to unison). When the natural scale degree a step below the final is a WHOLE step rather than the half-step a leading-tone effect requires (true for Dorian, Mixolydian, Aeolian finals), musica ficta raises that note by a chromatic half-step. This is NOT needed in Phrygian mode: the note above the Phrygian final is already a natural half-step, so the descending voice's F→E (in E Phrygian) uses the mode's own natural half-step with no ficta, while the ASCENDING voice moves by a WHOLE step (D→E) — the distinctive Phrygian half-cadence, asymmetric unlike the ficta-raised Dorian/Mixolydian/Aeolian cadence where both approaches are half-steps. A second ficta rule ('una nota supra la, semper est canendum fa'): B is lowered to Bb whenever it would otherwise form or outline a tritone against F. Ficta must never alter the modal final itself, and a cross-relation (one voice's natural form against another's simultaneous/adjacent ficta form) must be avoided.
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Score order for SATB and larger ensembles
Vocal/chorale score order top-to-bottom is Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass — never any other order. For a full ensemble, standard top-to-bottom order (Gould, Read) is woodwinds, brass, percussion, harp/keyboard, (vocal soloists/choir), then strings at the bottom — Gradus does not yet need this since it has no multi-family ensemble content, but a future orchestration unit must follow it.
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Spacing between adjacent upper voices
In four-part writing, the interval between Soprano and Alto, and between Alto and Tenor, should not exceed an octave (12 semitones) at any simultaneity. The Tenor-Bass interval is NOT subject to this restriction and may exceed an octave freely, since the bass frequently leaps to outline root-position harmony with no upper-voice register above it to collide with.
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Species melodic shape — single climax, no repeated notes, cadence approach
A well-formed species counterpoint line has exactly ONE climax (highest note), approached by step, not leap. Repeated notes (same pitch on consecutive onsets within the counterpoint line) are forbidden in 1st-3rd species, with a narrow allowance in modern editions for later species. The final cadence: the penultimate note moves to the final by STEP, from a major 6th (9 semitones) expanding to an octave (12 semitones), or a minor 3rd (3 semitones) contracting to a unison (0 semitones), in two-voice counterpoint — the two standard cadential approach shapes cited by Fux/Jeppesen.
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Stretto entries — interval-pattern preservation and clash detection
A stretto (overlapping subject entries) must preserve the subject's own melodic interval pattern at each entry — a 'false' or broken stretto, where the overlap departs from the subject's pattern partway through, should be an explicit authorial choice, not an unintended breakdown. Additionally, wherever stretto voices overlap, the SAME voice-leading rules apply to the resulting simultaneities — stretto does not suspend ordinary voice-leading, it adds the constraint that both voices are also independently constrained to the subject's shape.
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Tritone outlining (melodic and implied)
A melodic line tracing the shape of a tritone across a short span — a single direct leap, or two consecutive same-direction leaps whose combined net motion spans a tritone with no intervening stepwise motion — is forbidden by Fux/Jeppesen. A single intervening STEP between the outer notes removes the fault, since the ear then hears a scale fragment rather than a bare leap-defined tritone.
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Voice crossing — precise definition and generalized detection
Voice crossing occurs when, AT THE SAME MOMENT (same onset), a nominally LOWER voice sounds a pitch HIGHER than a nominally higher voice (or vice versa). Generally avoided in strict four-part writing (obscures which voice is which) though occasionally used deliberately, in which case it should be a marked exception, not an accident.
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Voice overlap — precise definition, distinct from crossing
Voice overlap is a TEMPORAL (not simultaneous) fault: a voice moves to a new pitch that is beyond the pitch its adjacent neighbor voice held immediately before — even though the two voices are never simultaneously crossed at any single instant. This is distinct from and commonly missed alongside simultaneous crossing, because two adjacent voices can pass through each other's registers across time without their pitches ever coinciding at one shared beat.
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Barline connection across staves — which groups share a continuous barline
Staves get a CONTINUOUS barline through the whole group when they belong to one keyboard/harp instrument, one choir (short or open score), or one orchestral family bracketed together. Barlines do NOT connect across genuinely independent solo staves in a concerto (soloist vs. orchestra), across a written-out cadenza (barlines suspend for the soloist while the orchestra's rest is barred normally), or between unrelated instrument families sharing a page.
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Concert-pitch score labeling
When a score for a transposing ensemble is presented at concert (sounding) pitch rather than each instrument's written pitch, the score must be explicitly labeled 'Score in C' / 'Concert pitch' — universal across Gould/Read/Ross since the two presentations are visually identical except key signature and octave placement, with no other cue.
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Cross-staff writing — stem direction and beam bridging
When a note or beam group crosses from one stave to another, the stem points TOWARD the destination stave, and the beam is drawn continuously bridging the gap rather than breaking into two separate beam groups.
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Cue notes vs. ossia staves — when to use which
A CUE (small notehead borrowed from another part) helps a performer re-enter correctly during a long rest, sitting WITHIN the performer's own stave. An OSSIA is a small alternate stave above/below the main stave offering a different reading of the SAME passage for the SAME performer. A cue answers 'where am I relative to the ensemble'; an ossia answers 'here is another way to play this exact passage.'
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Divisi and unison marks
When a stave/voice line temporarily splits into two independently-moving parts, the divergence point is marked 'div.' and the rejoin point 'unis.' — required because a stave with two simultaneous noteheads is otherwise ambiguous between a chord and two independent sub-parts.
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Incipit — opening-bars reference snippet
An incipit is a short (2-6 note) excerpt of a melody's opening, notated without a full time/key-signature commitment, used purely as a label/identifier. It is explicitly NOT meant to be played through as a complete musical statement.
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Staff labels and abbreviation after the first system
Every stave/instrument gets its full name at the start of the FIRST system. On every subsequent system, the label switches to a short abbreviated form (or is omitted for all but a few reference instruments in dense orchestral scores) — driven purely by space economy, never by ambiguity.
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System dividers on dense multi-system pages
On a page with several systems stacked closely, a short diagonal double-tick mark is placed at each system's left margin to separate it from the system above when the vertical gap alone risks reading as ambiguous.
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Vocal score conventions — piano reduction in cue size
In a vocal score, the piano-reduction stave is engraved in cue size (roughly 70-80% of the vocal stave's notehead/text size) to visually subordinate it as a rehearsal aid, and it condenses the orchestral texture rather than duplicating the vocal line.

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Brace vs. bracket vs. sub-bracket — what each groups

Cambiata and suspension — the two named licensed-dissonance exceptions

Chorale short score — four voices, two staves, stems opposed WHEN SHARED

Chordal seventh resolution

Doubling rules by chord type and inversion

Fugue answer — tonal vs. real, and the modulating-answer case

Fugue exposition — entry pitch level alternates tonic/dominant

Leading tone resolution and the inner-voice exception

Melodic augmented/diminished intervals and the compensating-step (recovery) rule

Parallel (consecutive) perfect fifths and octaves

SATB voice ranges (MIDI)

Species counterpoint exercise — cantus firmus notation and stave assignment

Species number claim must match the actual note-to-CF rhythmic ratio

Strong-beat consonance requirement, per species

Transposing instruments — written vs. sounding pitch and per-instrument key signature

Unprepared and unresolved dissonance

4th species cadence — the final bar suspends the syncopation pattern

Hidden (direct) fifths and octaves in outer voices

Kid-mode simplifications — what may be relaxed vs. what must never be relaxed

Modal cadence formulas (clausula vera, Phrygian) and musica ficta

Score order for SATB and larger ensembles

Spacing between adjacent upper voices

Species melodic shape — single climax, no repeated notes, cadence approach

Stretto entries — interval-pattern preservation and clash detection

Tritone outlining (melodic and implied)

Voice crossing — precise definition and generalized detection

Voice overlap — precise definition, distinct from crossing

Barline connection across staves — which groups share a continuous barline

Concert-pitch score labeling

Cross-staff writing — stem direction and beam bridging

Cue notes vs. ossia staves — when to use which

Divisi and unison marks

Incipit — opening-bars reference snippet

Staff labels and abbreviation after the first system

System dividers on dense multi-system pages

Vocal score conventions — piano reduction in cue size