Beginner SATB Music Theory - Are my nonharmonic chord tones correct in this example?
I am trying to create my own composition with a basic chord progression and nonharmonic tones for practice. I was wondering if I made any mistakes in adding the nonharmonic tones or in following other guidelines. Thank you!
Progression in G major: I vi6 ii6 IV V I64 V I
Measure 1: Neighbor tone
Measure 2: Neighbor tone, passing tone
Measure 3: 4-3 suspension, escape tone
Measure 4: anticipation, appogiatura
2 Comments
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Your non-chord tones look great!
There is, however, one little issue: the passing tone you added in at the end of m. 2 actually creates a voice-leading error. What was a sixth in the soprano/alto of E/C becomes E/B, which creates parallel perfect fifths moving into the subsequent D/A.
There is nothing "wrong" with your version (unless you count Richard's comment as a mistake - that depends on your textbook and teacher more than on real-life music).
However there is a different issue with bars 3 and 4. You choose to analyse the start of bar 3 as a 4-3 suspension. Alternatively, you could interpret the A in the treble as an anticipation, instead of two quarter notes B A.
That way of looking at it makes the harmony in bars 3 and 4 I64 V I64 V I where each pair of I64 V has exactly the same notes in all the parts, which might seem a bit "lame".
Try experimenting with a different chord than V before your final I64 V I cadence. (A "textbook" choice would be ii or some inversion of it before the I64, but there are other possibilities. Finding them yourself is more educational than looking them up in a textbook!)
There are no "right" or "wrong" answers to this sort of thing, and how people hear it depends on the context. But to me, bar 3 sounds like a V I cadence at the end of a phrase, with a "feminine ending" finishing on the weak beat of the bar - or it would be, if the second half of the bar was I and not I64 - and bar 4 is then tacked on the end without an obvious reason to be there at all.
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