Checking Harmony and Counterpoint

Dorico
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Hi everyone,

I am wanting to practice writing counterpoint and I was wondering if Dorico has any ability to check for counterpoint errors etc. I would love to be able to just use Dorico instead of having to buy dedicated software like Counterpointer.

Thanks so much!

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Probably not, but it would help us to know which type of counterpoint you are testing: Fux species counterpoint or Baroque.

(You are probably best off buying Counterpointer if you can afford it.)

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I’d never heard of this app before. I am intrigued.

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Hello dear colleagues,
Actually it will be helpful for many beginner and amateur musicians who would like to use Dorico, if there are tools for checking Harmony (for parallel 5ths & 8ves and crossing voices) & Counterpoint and Circle of Fifths and Fourths. I hope @dspreadbury and his great team would think about integration of such things in the future.

@HBIII, about the Counterpoint… it won’t be an easy job a checking tool to be created… The counterpoint in the Renaissance is different than the one in the Baroque period. In the Romantism we are having much more using of free counterpoint, still based on the baroque. In 20th century’s music we could find counterpoint used in an aleatoric context…
Also the educational counterpoint know as Fux’s species, has more limitations than the CP in the real music. For example in the species you are not allowed to write more than 3 consecutive thirds, while in reality there is no such limitation.
But as my professor in Counterpoint always tells to her students, there are five major colossus in the Art of Counterpoint - Palestrina, Frescobaldi, Buxtehude, Bach and Fux .
If the team is planning to create a Counterpoint checking tool, they have to base it on the works of those 5 composers and educators.

Best wishes,
Thurisaz :slight_smile:

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Thanks so much for the answers everyone!

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Have a look at Rising Software | News which is an educational tool. Seems like it checks 4 part writing for consecutives and so on. I haven’t tried it so can’t vouch for how good it is.

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if I remember correctly, Sibelius had a PlugIn to check for parallel fifths.

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I found a website called artinfuser which can check counterpoint and harmony if you upload a MusicXML file. I might try that so I can still write everything out in Dorico…

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Thanks, I will check this out too!

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Just had a go uploading a 2nd sp cp - worked really well! (the site, not my cp!) Using Dorico then uploading the resulting xml file makes it a snap. Thanks for the pointer to ArtInfuser :+1:

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I would personally love Dorico to incorporate a tool like Counterpointer. Counterpointer has the ability to accept the rules (ie, just check boxes to tell it to follow Fux rules or Renaissance , or to be more liberal, etc. If I could select 4 lines and have Dorico point out my errors, that would endear me to Dorico for life-- Dorico is good at saving a lot of time, but that would help me (and everybody) write better music quickly.-- in fact, if Dorico entered in to a collaboration with Counterpointer, I would definitely pay extra for that feature.