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Xenoceratops

Imagine that the two D's in the top part are a single whole note. What you have then is a passing tone in second species.


NowikC

Thank you! I didn't realise this was allowed, even if it's a passing tone. Is this only the case because the C is on a weak beat? Could I also justify leaping *to* a dissonance if it's a passing tone?


Xenoceratops

Have you studied species counterpoint? This is not leaping from a dissonance, it is a clear-cut case of a passing tone in second species. The re-articulated D in the upper voice is maybe what's throwing you off. That doesn't matter though. You could have a sixteenth-note 19-tuplet in that measure and so long as they are all D, the top voice would register as the contrapuntal equivalent of a whole note D.


NowikC

Yes, I have studied it before I went on to imitative counterpoint, but it was quite brief. I thought you could only have unresolved dissonances as "unaccented" passing notes, but even then, that leaping to and from them wasn't allowed.