Third Species Counterpoint (4:1) Heath: Counterpoint (Music 221) Rules and Guidelines Four quarter notes of counterpoint are written for each whole note: Beat 1 (Strong); Beats 2 and 4 (weak); Beat 3 (weaker than beat 1, more accented than beats 2 and 4). • Strong beats should not outline a dissonant interval. No more than 3 consecutive measures should begin with the same interval. No unisons should be used on strong beats (other than at the beginning and end). Consecutive downbeats may be 5ths and 8ves, but no more than two in a row of the same kind should be used. • The interval on the first quarter note is always consonant and the interval on the third is often also consonant, while the 2nd and 4th intervals may be dissonant. The third may be dissonant if the other 3 intervals are consonant. • P5s and P8s that occur against two different notes of the cantus firmus should be separated by at least two quarter notes. P5s or P8s with only one intervening quarter note occurring within a measure (i.e., over the same cantus firmus note) are fine. Avoid having more than two consecutive strong-beat 5ths or 8ves. • Leaps must be treated very carefully in 3rd species. Avoid too many consecutive leaps (especially in the same direction). Avoid leaps into strong beats (downbeats especially). Dissonances are allowed on all beats except for beat 1, ONLY if they belong to one of the following gestures: 1. Passing Tone: a dissonance that fills the space between a third by direct, stepwise motion. 2. (Dissonant) Neighbor Tone: a non-chord tone, or non-essential tone (dissonance) that moves by step, up or down from a consonance (chord-tone), and that then returns to that same consonance. 3. Double Neighbor: a four-note figure beginning on a downbeat and moving to the upper neighbor, then to the lower neighbor (B. below); or moving first to the lower neighbor and then the upper neighbor before resolving to the original note (A. below). 4. Nota Cambiata: This is a 5-note figure beginning on a strong beat (either beats 1 or 3). It is made up of a step and leap of a third in the same direction followed by two steps in the opposite direction, returning to the note directly above or below the initial tone. The 1st, 3rd, and 5th note of the cambiata must be consonant..