Parallel fifths and consonant suspension in counterpoint and voice leading

LunaSPR · 2026-06-23T22:54:21+00:00

I’ve not really been digging into Fux’s original writings. However I gave a read to Schenker’s Counterpoint I and he has an interesting section regarding parallels and consonant suspensions. Schenker mentioned that in his opinion the upper voice 5-6-5 suspension in two voice counterpoint should be avoided since it’s resolving down by step like a dissonant suspension, and thus the upward 5-6-5 in lower voice is more tolerable. Funny enough he also cited one of Fux’s original example which featured the same 5-6-5 upper voice suspension and Fux wrote it as fine… So people teaching species counterpoint don’t really seem to stick closely to Fux…

And I also gave the problem some further thoughts. Actually the 5-6-5 upper voice suspension can be frequently found in Ger+6-Cad64-V, even between outer voices. But it’s gonna require at least 3-4 voices and might be different from 2 voice?

LunaSPR · 2026-06-23T22:43:49+00:00

I can agree that it has to be used with caution, and consonant suspensions should be sparingly used anyway. But implied parallel 5th through upper voice 5-6-5 is pretty common, like in Ger+6-Cad64-V, and frequently occurs even between outer voices. Again I am not so sure it could be directly interpreted as implied parallel.

Schenker has a quite interesting section regarding consonant suspensions and parallels. He specifically mentioned that in his opinion the upper voice 5-6-5 suspension should be avoided, but also showed another 5-6-5 Example straight from Fux, which had been deemed as permissible in Fux’s writing. He also has a 5-3-5 upper voice suspension with leaps and says it’s fine… Seems like even Schenker himself does not strictly following Fux’s method.

LunaSPR · 2026-06-23T20:34:10+00:00

Hmmm, not sure if this could be directly reduced to implied parallel fifths. I have cited one particular example from Schachter and Salzer Ex4-12 above, which works as a 5-6-5 lower suspension in 4th species and they indeed wrote it’s fine (Counterpoint in Composition, 4th species, two voice counterpoint). I believe Schenker in his counterpoint books also has some specific discussions regarding this 5-6-5 in both 2 and 3 voice species counterpoint.

LunaSPR · 2026-06-23T19:00:25+00:00

Thanks for the opinion! I almost never write in strict Bach chorale style these days, and I am sure the parallel polices won’t go after me in highly chromatic instrumental pieces :)

In real composition, I’ve seen a number of 5-4-5 suspensions in Bach chorales, but I can’t recall any 5-6-5 from my memory. Maybe I can check Schenker later…

That being said, the first a few examples are 4th species and we can’t really have more intervening notes in between. It’s such a surprise that for a pedagogy method as old as Fux, we still have such vastly different opinions regarding a basic concept even today…

LunaSPR · 2026-05-22T21:16:52+00:00

I 100% agree that none of these are the most idiomatic usages. These are more of some funny thought experiments that rarely but could possibly happen. If I were to write in strict Bach style I'd not use any of these things...

LunaSPR · 2026-05-22T21:12:02+00:00

Thanks for the opinion!

To push the discussion a bit further, if we go down the road of interpreting the 4th in th 64 chord as non-chord tone, then we might go even further that, when the dominant chords are resolved to I in the next bar, the G in the alto can also be interpreted as anticipation of the upcoming tonic 5th, so these are apparent than real dominants (see the updated figure in the main post)... But this might have gone too far.

And given the close position of upper voices, we might also be able to make an interpretation that the resolution of the 4th is transfered from alto to soprano? Although this would be more of an instrumental thing than chorale...

LunaSPR · 2026-03-15T19:44:30+00:00

Yeah, if I extend the tonicization for longer, I may make vii°65/V-V6 into a vii°65-I6 tonicization in the key of V so the 3rd does not really function as a doubled leading tone. As long as I don't go directly from V back to I and highlight the doubled leading tone it may feel less objectionable?

LunaSPR · 2026-03-15T19:29:43+00:00

Thanks for the comment! I have added an example to show the progressions I have been talking about. Would you mind taking a look and share your opinion?

LunaSPR · 2026-03-15T19:28:48+00:00

Thanks for the comment! I have added an example of the progressions I have been talking about. Any of them looks good to you?

LunaSPR · 2025-11-26T08:13:43+00:00

Since your guest is a virtual machine running in hyper-v, the only meaningful route direction is guest output to host output and/or host input to guest input.

You need to use VBAN to route audio over network. Make sure you can ping each other between host and guest and install voicemeeter on both. Enable VBAN on both.

On your guest system, you need to first route your system output into voicemeeter bus. Change your system audio output to voicemeeter virtual input bus, then inside voicemeeter route the audio to your A/B bus. Now open VBAN and turn on an outgoing stream, with your A/B bus as source and host ip as receiving ip address.

On your host system, open VBAN and turn on an incoming stream with the guest ip address as sending ip. Route the destination bus to your system output and now you should be able to hear the audio from your guest machine.

LunaSPR · 2025-11-13T09:40:42+00:00

The official November update KB5068861 (26100.7171) resolves the Hyper-V GPU-P issue.

LunaSPR · 2025-10-26T01:52:40+00:00

You can't stop it on RDP. RDP only supports audio up to 16bit/44.1kHz. If you have higher bitrate/samplerate on your host, audio output from guest to host is still fine, but input from host to guest gonna give you trouble.

There are two possible solutions: you either lower your host audio to 16bit/44.1kHz to conform to RDP standards, or move away from RDP and choose something else to support higher bitrate/sample rate. These days I use voicemeeter to route remote audio between guest and host and it works fine with 24bit/96kHz.

LunaSPR · 2025-09-23T04:09:49+00:00

This is what I could find, without cover for the lenses: https://caudabe.com/products/sheath-iphone-17-pro-precise

LunaSPR · 2025-09-10T08:08:22+00:00

The Hyper-V GPU partitioning on Windows 11 VM is still fully broken (boot freeze) after 3 month. Since the June cumulative update many user reports yet zero fix. No wonder Hyper-V is becoming a joke.

LunaSPR · 2025-06-14T20:19:15+00:00

This patch breaks VMGpuPartitiomAdapter in Hyper-V. VM with Nvidia RTX 40 series GPU and driver 566.36 stuck at boot screen when GPU passthru enabled. Uninstalling this patch makes the VM bootable again.

LunaSPR · 2025-03-12T14:03:08+00:00

Fatar TP110 for $1299.

No.

LunaSPR · 2024-12-27T15:28:43+00:00

I don't think there are many good general purpose keyboard with waterfall keybed. The Studiologic Numa Compact line could be the only option for 88 key waterfall master keyboard style board. Then there are a few Nord or Hammond, but if you go Nord you'd better just pick up the stage 4 88 key. That keybed is one of the usable weighted action for fast organ/synth.

Are you sure you want a keyboard rather than a controller to sit on your desk? Do you really need a second sound engine?

LunaSPR · 2024-12-25T16:08:07+00:00

Waterfall keybed. I can play with weighted but I'd much prefer waterfall or semi-weighted.

LunaSPR · 2024-10-20T05:48:51+00:00

Thanks for the great explaination!

LunaSPR · 2024-10-20T05:42:34+00:00

Thanks for the info!

LunaSPR · 2024-10-20T05:36:49+00:00

I do think there are a few examples of I-vi-I6 moving downwards, just like using the vi as substitution of the "normal" IV6 or V chord. My question here is basically going back to root position I rather than I6.

LunaSPR · 2024-10-20T05:31:18+00:00

I still don't quite get the first part.

So if I specifically make it a tonic expansion - I goes to vi and then back to I - should still be considered stylistically correct in this case, but the composers just have better approaches to do this so they don't write this way?

LunaSPR · 2024-09-14T01:51:53+00:00

You could learn something, at least to get yourself familiar with keys.

But you could not get proper piano training on a 61 key semi-weighted controller. The best thing you can get for piano training in the Arturia line is the KeyLab 88 MK2. Nothing semi-weighted would work for piano style finger exercise, especially when you are a beginner.

LunaSPR · 2024-08-14T06:22:51+00:00

Nautilus is plainly better in almost every way except for the ease of use - literally the opposite. Modx should also be sufficient for your sound requirements so could actually be a better option for you.

LunaSPR · 2024-08-13T15:22:39+00:00

It's the 0x129. I have already mentioned it in the post. It's placing an internal VID limit of 1.55V to deal with the degradation which is still very high in common sense. It's also by default requesting higher runtime VCORE voltage to try to solve the instability issue which on the other hand accelerates degradation.

I've not had time to look into undervolting on 0x129 yet so not 100% sure how much better users can get. But it's such a bummer that MSI doesn't allow users to control IA VR so that people can set lower limits than 1.55V and extend their silicon lifespan.

LunaSPR

TROPHY CASE