CP #36 - How to Harmonize a Chorale! Follow these steps!

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This is what I think is necessary to harmonise chorales:
0. Play a lot of chorale, to learn the patterns. When playing the chorales, have only soprano and bass written down, add the inner voices yourself. You need to know good voice leading. This is the preliminary skill to have before starting to compose your own basses.
To harmonise a specific chorale:
1. Work out the cadences first. You should know how to identify them, and have all the possibilities memorised and learnt in several keys on the keyboard. Once the cadences are fixed, they will serve as the frame for everything else.
2. Write the bass. Look for sections of the melody outside the cadences for any fragments of cadential clausulae, and use another cadential clausula as a counterpoint. For example, if the melody goes 1, 2, 3 (tenorizans), you can use 1, 7, 1 (cantizans) in the bass. Think outside the key, any three notes descending or ascending by step can be a clausula tenorizans. Apply the musica ficta (causa pulchritudinis) to all the cantizans clausulae in the bass or in the future middle voices as this will create what the modern theorists call "secondary dominants", which is really nice.
3. For the parts of the melody that do not contain cadential clausulae, work out the free counterpoint in the bass, parallel thirds, parallel sixths, alternating thirds and sixths, as well as the (fifth)-third-octave-sixth pattern in contrary motion (sometimes called "exchange"). Make sure that 3 in the melody is not accompanied with 5 in the bass (sixth), as this will create a 6/4 chord outside a cadence. Remember the three specific rules regarding the rule of the octave: 3 in the bass always takes the sixth, 5 in the bass always takes the fifth, 7 in the bass always takes the sixth, but also the fifth in addition.
4. Fill out the middle voices with just consonances. There are only two consonances: a chord of the fifth (5/3), and the chord of the sixth (6/3). Adjust the bass if necessary. Ideally, the bass should follow the rule of the octave for any parts that are outside the cadences. Sequences are rare in chorales, but if you notice an opportunity, don't miss it.
5. Figure out the harmonic rhythm, fix any parts that stick out. For example, if the bass ascends by a third, you should not follow a chord of the fifth by a chord of the sixth, because that is the same harmony and it messes up the overall rhythm. There are exceptions to this, if justified by good taste, but the overall harmonic rhythm in chorales should be one harmony per beat.
6. Add dissonances, first the syncopatio wherever it is possible, the more the better. Fill the remaining parts with transitus dissonances. You should have at least one dissonance per beat, either a transitus or syncopatio. If you can't squeeze in neither the syncopatio or transitus, either adjust the bass or use an anticipation. So, if the chorale melody moves in quarter notes (not considering diminutions), the overall rhythm should be in eight notes - this is accomplished by using the dissonances. There can be exceptions to this, if justified by good taste, but this is the ideal.
7. Go back and fix any parts that are bad. Iteration is the key to success.

[@DarioLaTorreOfficial]

Bravo! Bellissimo video!

[@lukehentschel5477]

wonderful!

[@DodiSena]

Is "Traité de l'harmonie (Koechlin, Charles, 1928) a good book to learn this?

[@mortenkeiser-nielsen7311]

The link isn't working. I am very interested in joining the partimento method, but sadly I can't open the link.

[@RichardusCochlearius]

Join TPM: www.bit.ly/join-tpm

[@mortenkeiser-nielsen7311]

@@RichardusCochlearius Thank you!