abstract
this article describes a tool for exploring voice-leading options in pre-tonal and tonal harmonic contexts: the "voice-leading map." like many tools, voice-leading maps may be adapted for a number of different uses and applied to a variety of materials. in order to convey something of this multivalence, the description that follows will be divided into three sections: (1) an introduction to maps using 4-voice examples, such as any student might encounter in first- and second-year theory; (2) an application of maps to 8-voice compositional exercises in a late 16th-century style; and (3) a brief exposition of the kind of analytical insights that maps afford, using a 12-voice example by palestrina and a 40-voice example by tallis.
recommended citation
royal, matthew s.
(2009)
"mapping voice leading from four through forty voices- a tool for pedagogy,"
journal of music theory pedagogy: vol. 23, article 2.
available at:
https://digitalcollections.lipscomb.edu/jmtp/vol23/iss1/2
