J. Anthony Allen shows how to write smooth voice-leading for strings by filling intervals with passing tones. He connects a G to D in the cello with an E, raises the C to C♯ in minor keys, and uses complementary motion in violins and violas to build a D-minor triad while keeping the harmony intact.
Okay, let's start with this cello line. So we've got a G up to D. Now, I could do this with quarter notes, but I need more quarter notes than I've got. If I'm gonna walk up the scale, I need more than I've got, so I'm gonna use eighth notes. I'm gonna have to do a little cheat here. Oops. Let's start here. And again, the reason I'm choosing this interval or this spot, because I see a big interval that I can fill in the gaps in between. Okay, so I've got a G. So I'm just going to walk up the scale. And so now what I really want to do is connect this G to this D. I'm already on the D and I need one more note. So I'm just going to kind of cheat and go up to this E and then back down to the D. There's a couple different ways I could do that. I could also start one note low, or start on the note and then go low and then go back high. But this will work. Now what I'm doing here is I'm just going up the scale and it should work. It should sound pretty good. In most cases, this will sound perfectly great. You just stick to the scale and you're going to create some non chord tones, you're going to create some dissonance, but more or less, it'll be good. Now, this particular case that I just wrote has one problem in it that you need to watch out for. Because I can't actually just write in the scale in this case because I'm in a minor key, Right? If you're in a major key, you don't really have to worry about this. But in a minor key, I have to worry about that leading tone, especially if the melody is using it. And it just so happens that what I just wrote conflicts at the exact moment. Check it out. In the melody, that C is raised to the C sharp right there, right on the end of two. And the notes I just added right there on the end of two. I've written a C. So I need to do one of two things. Either I need to rewrite my little connecting line to not hit a C right there, or I need to make that a C sharp. I think making this a C sharp will sound good. I think that'll work. Let's try it. I'm gonna really crank up the cello here so that it stands out and we hear this pretty well. So here we go. Okay. Pretty good. Let's find Another spot here to here would be a good spot. But I think that'll be a little too heavy handed to have this big line moving in octaves. I don't think that's what we really want. Let's see if there's another obvious one. There would be one. There would be one here, not so much because it's only a step. Definitely not here because it's the same. Although, you know, you could kind of go up and down and then end up on the same spot. And here, let's see if we can do something in the violins. How about. Let's go with this one. So let's change this and let's see if I can go. F, G. I'm kind of just guessing here because these are on the same two notes, right? But there is motion in them because it's a harmony, right. I could have one go up to the other. I could have them both move around a little bit. But what I think I want to do, I don't love this fifth. Just moving around. So I'm going to open that interval to a six. Sixth. I'm going to go there. Okay, so you see this one is going up by thirds. The top line is going up by thirds. The bottom line is going up by seconds. Okay, so what I've added here is a D, F, A, so kind of spelling a D minor triad. But then it lands, kind of goes up and then down and then lands on this G, which is the tonic of the next chord. And then our lower voice just walks right up the scale. G, A, B, and then a little bit of a leap to a D. Okay, so I think these will sound good. Now I'm going to crank up that viola, pull down our cello a little bit and let's see if we can hear that. Yeah, it's a little weird. I think it's that note. I hear it again. It's a little different, but I like it. Actually. Everything works and it's just creating motion. That's all we're really doing here. So, I mean, technically we're creating a whole bunch of new chords. I mean, these are different chords. The harmony has changed, but everything is passing, so it can work just fine. All right, let's keep going and see if we can find some more.
