Is this a hidden consecutive fifth?
I am working through some beginner counterpoint exercises, and I wrote this harmony above part of a cantus firmus:
.
By my understanding this should be a 3rd to a 5th, which should be acceptable, but when I played it in line with the rest of the piece, it didn't sound so great. Not that everything written in counterpoint should sound great, but I was wondering if it was a hidden consecutive fifth because the C/A kind of evoke a phantom E or F to complete the F major triad or the a minor triad, both of which would create a parallel fifth if present.
Can anyone shed a little light as to what might be going on here, or is my ear lying to me?
Here's my version of the example exercise taken from Chapter 1 of Fux's Counterpoint from which I ended up creating the aforesaid progression (my harmony on top, the cantus firmus below):
Restated: Is this a hidden consecutive fifth, and why or why not?
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It's not a hidden fifth. The problem I think is that the two leaps D down to A then up to C# sound funny to me. Perhaps the last soprano note of bar 2 could be D which make allows the soprano to make a stepwise descent.
There are no hidden consecutive fifths.
Allow me to quote a little excerpt from Wikipedia:
The reason for avoiding parallel 5ths and 8ves has to do with the nature of counterpoint. The P8 and P5 are the most stable of intervals, and to link two voices through parallel motion at such intervals interferes with their independence much more than would parallel motion at 3rds or 6ths.
In this particular example the voices are moving in contrary motion and only one of the intervals is a perfect interval (minor third to perfect fifth), so there is no problem as far as the consecutive perfect intervals restriction is concerned.
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