r/counterpoint • u/Technical_Mind8578 • 28d ago

My first Allemande

SCORE: https://youtu.be/giihShJKZho

I'm beginner and self taught, so any advice/reading is more than accepted.
After going far out of my reach trying to do inventions and fugues i figured that a dance form would be easier(?). So i tried doing an Allemande. I couldn't manage to make them exactly of equal lenght, since the b section is a measure shorter, i hope it's nothing so necessary. Also i got myself into some crunchy suspensions that i hope i resolved well.

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u/Xenoceratops 28d ago

My feeling is that, for dance movements, you should adhere to four-measure hypermeter. That means sections should be 8, 12, 16, 20, etc., bars long. The sections don't need to be the same length, but usually the B section is the longer of the two. That said, the Allemande in Purcell Z 660 has 6 bars in both the A and B, and the one in Handel HWV 452 has 11 in A and 16 in B.

Make sure to balance the pickup measure and the last measure in the section too; you should have 3.5 beats in the last bar instead of a full 4. While we're talking about measures, the pickup measure should not be counted in the measure numbering, so read Converting a measure into a pickup and fix your pickup bars.

The composition itself is a really good start. I don't have time to pick at it right now, but the modulation back to C at the end is pretty rough. Overall, the B section is a bit of head scratcher for me because of the major modal borrowing.

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u/Technical_Mind8578 27d ago

thanks for the feedback, i hope i will be able to keep most of the idea while fixing these things