Voice-leading analysis of music 3: the background

Introduction

This course analyses the ‘voice leading’ of the harmony. The method of going about this kind of analysis is applicable to any piece of tonal music. Just as Mozart's piano sonatas are an excellent source of examples for studying the voice leading at the foreground and middleground of the harmony, so Beethoven's Eighth Symphony is also an ideal work in which to start to consider the largest-scale stage of voice-leading analysis.

This course requires you to switch between several different formats of material. This reflects the particular nature of analysis, where you are constantly comparing what you write out, or see in the score or analytical graph, with what you can hear – a difficult job! So make every effort to work through these materials in the manner and order suggested.

Please note that you should have studied OpenLearn courses AA314_1 Voice-leading analysis of music 1: the foreground [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] and AA314_2 Voice-leading analysis of music 2: the middleground before attempting this course.

This OpenLearn course provides a sample of Level 3 study in Arts and Humanities.

The materials upon which this course is based have been authored by Robert Samuels.