Four-Part Chorale Style

Soprano. The highest line is heard most clearly as melody.

Alto. The upper inner voice fills harmony while staying close enough to the soprano for a blended texture.

Tenor. The lower inner voice connects bass and upper parts and often carries important chord tones.

Bass. The lowest line defines inversions, root motion and much of the harmonic function.

SATB names vocal ranges, but the same four-line principles can guide strings, keyboards, horns and layered productions.

Keep soprano and alto within an octave, and alto and tenor within an octave. The bass may sit more than an octave below the tenor.

Avoid voice crossing, where a lower part moves above a higher part. Also watch voice overlap, where one part moves beyond the previous note of its neighbor.

Spacing should serve singability and clarity. Exact practical ranges depend on the singers or instruments writing the parts.

A triad has three pitch classes and SATB has four voices, so one note is usually doubled.

Root-position triads commonly double the root. First-inversion triads allow more flexibility; choose a stable scale degree and preserve smooth lines. Avoid doubling the leading tone in strict tonal writing because both copies carry a strong pull toward tonic.

Seventh chords already contain four pitch classes and can use all four. In incomplete voicings, preserve the third and seventh because they define quality and voice leading.

Leading tone. Scale degree 7 normally rises to 1, especially in soprano at a cadence.

Chordal seventh. The seventh of V7 normally falls by step. In G7-C, F falls to E.

Suspension. A prepared note is held into a new chord, creates dissonance and resolves by step.

Altered note. A chromatic leading tone usually continues toward the pitch it temporarily targets.

These expectations are strongest at cadences and in outer voices. Inner voices sometimes take another route to avoid poor doubling or parallels.

Perfect fifths and octaves blend strongly. When the same two voices move in parallel from one perfect interval to another, their independence becomes less audible.

Chorale style aims for four distinct lines, so it avoids that fusion. Contrary and oblique motion help preserve separation.

This is a style rule with a purpose. Music that seeks octave doubling, power-chord motion or parallel color can use those intervals deliberately.

For G7-C in C major, place G in the bass under G7 and C under the tonic. Let B rise to C and F fall to E. D may fall to C or G may remain as a common tone depending on the voicing.

A perfect authentic cadence places both V and I in root position and ends the soprano on C. Other soprano notes or inversions produce a less final authentic cadence.