Tone and Voice: A Derivation of the Rules of Voice-Leading from Perceptual Principles

Abstract

The traditional rules of voice-leading in Western music are explicated using experimentally established perceptual principles. Six core principles are shown to account for the majority of voice-leading rules given in historical and contemporary music theory tracts. These principles are treated in a manner akin to axioms in a formal system from which the traditional rules of voice-leading are derived. Nontraditional rules arising from the derivation are shown to predict formerly unnoticed aspects of voice-leading practice. In addition to the core perceptual principles, several auxiliary principles are described. These auxiliary principles are occasionally linked to voice-leading practice and may be regarded as compositional "options" that shape the music-making in perceptually unique ways. It is suggested that these auxiliary principles distinguish different types of part writing, such as polyphony, homophony, and close harmony. A theory is proposed to account for the aesthetic origin of voice-leading practices.

The capacity for music: What is it, and what’s special about it?

“…Huron (2001) demonstrates this for the conventional rules of Western counterpoint. For example, parallel octaves and fifths are avoided because parallel motion between such consonant intervals tends to fuse two voices into one, contradicting the ideal in Western counterpoint of independent polyphonic voices.…”

Expectancy-Violation and Information-Theoretic Models of Melodic Complexity

“…Since music is organized in highly regular ways concerning these probability distributions, these low-order distributions are rather similar across cultures and musical styles (Huron, 2001). Moreover, the empirical ratings of stability of pitch-classes (Krumhansl, 1990) bears high similarity to pitch-class distributions in actual music (Huron, 2001;Järvinen, 1995).…”

Facing the music

“…The rules of counterpoint developed in the early Baroque period, for example, use Gestalt grouping mechanisms to prevent separate melody lines from merging 1 . Bach and others also exploited the capacity to generate auditory illusions in the technique called virtual polyphony: splitting a single melodic line into two by means of alternating large pitch jumps.…”