Before plunging headlong into the details of this title, let’s just take a moment to appreciate what is meant when the word counterpoint is used in music.
Sometimes confused with polyphony, which describes two or more independent melodies, counterpoint is more closely related to how those melodic lines are treated.
From the Latin punctus contra punctum, the literal translation means point against point; perhaps more usefully, note against note.
Both counterpoint and polyphony held centre stage throughout the Renaissance and Baroque periods of music. There are a vast number of excellent compositions that demonstrate these characteristics, most notably perhaps in the music of GF Handel and JS Bach.
What are the Types of Counterpoint in Classical Music?
Having mentioned the Renaissance and Baroque periods of music, it should be noted that counterpoint has its origins as far back as the Medieval period of music.
If you consider organum, a type of sacred music from around the tenth century, we discover a second voice singing initially in parallel to the plainchant but a century or two later in a far more independent manner.
By the 12th century, we can hear a more distinct vocal separation and independence of parts. The melodic lines become increasingly individual melodically and rhythmically. The advent of the motet gave rise to more innovation.
The characteristic three-voice motet used rhythmic modes that could be applied differently to each voice. As this century developed towards the early Renaissance, we began to hear pieces with extraordinary levels of contrapuntal sophistication.
The compositions of 14th-century composer Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1370) were a master of this type of composition.
Renaissance to the Baroque Period
What you hear as we move through the Renaissance and into the Baroque period is a counterpoint that gives several melodies independence rhythmically and harmonically.
To create a convincing counterpoint, it is necessary for a composer to not only create interesting melodies but to ensure they complement each other harmonically. Dissonance needs resolution.
Likewise, there must be sufficient rhythmic interest to assist in the audibility of each melody as well as give it a unique quality. It’s not an easy job, especially if you’re attempting to compose with four or more voices.
Throughout the Renaissance, the strictness of contrapuntal rules was tight. The legacy of the Medieval composers was still strong even during this cultural rebirth. Rules governing almost every aspect of counterpoint needed to be learned and properly practiced.
The Baroque period brought with it greater freedoms for composers that led to some of the most beautiful music being composed.
Joseph Fux and the Principles of Counterpoint
As with nearly every musical development, rules change, rules get broken, and sometimes pure magic occurs. Counterpoint did, however, have quite a clear set of principles. Joseph Fux (1660-1741) was a composer of some note, born in Austria.
These days he is more celebrated for his magnificent book called Gradus ad Parnassum. This two-part work is divided up into the first section taking a mathematical analysis of music examining intervals and proportions from the ancient Greeks and deeply into the Renaissance theorists.
It is in the second half of this book that we discover Fux’s perceptive account of counterpoint, double counterpoint, and fugue. The book is aimed at instructing a student from the humble beginnings of their study through to maturity.
If you care to delve into this book, you’ll discover Fux tells the prospective student to work through and master each species of counterpoint before moving on to the next.
The word species is not Fux’s own but one belonging to Venetian composer Girolamo Diruta, in whose work Il Transilvano (1610), he first makes use of the term.
Species of Counterpoint According to Fux
The word species is important as we proceed towards a fuller understanding of the varieties of counterpoint that exist. Classifying counterpoint techniques by their rhythms is how to grasp Fux’s idea of species. Each rhythm has its structure.
For example, the First Specie is simply note against note, with each holding the same rhythmic value. In the Second Specie, it becomes two notes against one (minims against semi-breves).
By the time we arrive at the Fifth Specie, it is called florid counterpoint. This is a highly open and free specie, combining the elements of the previous four species. What this species allows is a great opportunity for textural richness and harmonic ingenuity.
From the Fux categories of species, we can further define or categorize four key variants of counterpoint. There are always additional kinds of counterpoint that evolve from these; however, these four can be thought of as the stems from which they grow.
Counterpoint Types:
1. Strict Counterpoint
A method of counterpoint that is frequently employed throughout the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
When you analyze this type of counterpoint, it feels as if almost every element of the composition is regulated, and to an extent, it is. The harmonic and rhythmic interaction between the voices is governed by almost unbreakable rules.
2. Imitative Counterpoint
Perhaps the best illustration of this counterpoint is in the fugue. Here, three, four, or five voices imitate the subject material at a predetermined interval and distance. At a simpler level, the canon could also incorporate imitative counterpoint.
3. Free Counterpoint
As you might have already guessed, Free Counterpoint is the province of Baroque composers who, as previously mentioned, relaxed the boundaries and restrictions of the Renaissance masters.
In this kind of counterpoint, you hear more melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic liberty. The results are often shown in greater use of chromaticism, giving rise to some wonderfully crunchy harmonies. Rhythmic relationships are also looser.
4. Inverted Counterpoint
This final contrapuntal offering incorporates a challenging technical method that will elude many composers. What happens is the melodic voices become interchangeable. This means shifting the upper voice to the lower voice and vice versa.
The transposition is commonly at the octave, but other variants are possible with some clever calculations. Remember, if you invert a perfect 5th, for example, it becomes a perfect 4th, which is considered (at the time) to be dissonant.
You can hear a fine example of this in JS Bach’s Invention No.9 in F minor. Additionally, if you listen to the fugue from JS Bach’s C minor Prelude and Fugue from the Well-Tempered Klavier, Book 1, you’ll hear inversion at the 12th.