How do I harmonise a chorale in the style of Bach for the Composing A technical exercise?
The Bach chorale harmonisation technical exercise (Composing A): harmonising a given melody in four parts with functional harmony, correct cadences, good voice-leading and Bachian style, and the common rules and errors.
A focused answer to the Bach chorale harmonisation technical exercise in OCR A-Level Music Composing A. Covers harmonising a given chorale melody in four parts: choosing functional chords and cadences, voice-leading the SATB parts smoothly, using passing notes and suspensions, capturing the Bach style, and avoiding the common errors (parallels, poor spacing, weak cadences).
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What this dot point is asking
The first technical exercise in Composing A is a Bach chorale harmonisation: you are given a chorale melody and must harmonise it in four parts (SATB) with functional harmony, correct cadences, smooth voice-leading and the style of Bach. This dot point sets out how to choose chords and cadences, voice the parts, decorate idiomatically, and avoid the classic errors, applying the harmony you study for listening to a writing task.
Choosing chords and cadences
Voice-leading the four parts
Decoration and the Bach style
How the exercise is assessed
The chorale exercise assesses technical command of harmony and voice-leading directly: the marks reward correct, functional chords and cadences, smooth, well-spaced four-part writing with proper resolutions, idiomatic decoration, and the absence of errors (consecutives, doubled leading notes, awkward leaps). It is the harmony and tonality you study for listening, applied as a writing skill, so practising it also sharpens your harmonic ear.
Try this
Q1. Which voice-leading rules apply to the leading note and the seventh of a chord? [Knowledge recall]
- Cue. The leading note rises to the tonic (and is never doubled); the seventh of a chord falls by step to resolve.
Q2. Why should you harmonise the cadences first? [Short explanation]
- Cue. The cadences define the phrase structure and key, so fixing them first gives a functional framework into which the rest of each phrase is harmonised.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of OCR exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
OCR (Composing A exercise, style)6 marksHarmonise the cadence points of the given chorale melody in four parts (SATB) in the style of Bach. (Composing A technical exercise)Show worked answer →
Up to six marks for the cadences. Choose a functional cadence at each phrase end (a perfect cadence to , or an imperfect cadence to , or at the final phrase a perfect cadence), approached by good harmony. Voice the four parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) with correct spacing (no large gaps between the upper three parts), smooth voice-leading (move each part by the smallest interval, keep common tones), and a strong bass. Markers reward stylish, correct cadences with good voice-leading and no consecutive fifths or octaves. They penalise parallels, awkward leaps, poor spacing, doubled leading notes, and cadences that are not functional.
OCR (Composing A exercise, style)6 marksComplete the inner parts (alto and tenor) of the given chorale phrase, with appropriate decoration. (Composing A technical exercise)Show worked answer →
Up to six marks. Fill the alto and tenor to complete each chord (with the correct notes, the leading note rising to the tonic, the seventh of a falling), spacing them within an octave of each other and the soprano, and moving them smoothly (small intervals, common tones held). Add idiomatic decoration, passing notes between chord notes and suspensions at cadences, in the Bach style, without creating consecutives. Markers reward complete, correctly spaced chords with smooth, stylish inner parts and tasteful decoration. They penalise wrong or missing chord notes, parallels, unresolved leading notes or sevenths, and clumsy decoration.
Related dot points
- The composing components (Composing A, H543/03, and Composing B, H543/04): their briefs, technical exercises, durations and weightings, and how the two routes differ, as the framework for the composing assessment.
A focused answer to the OCR A-Level Music composing components. Explains Composing A (H543/03, 105 marks, 35 percent, at least 8 minutes including an OCR brief, a learner brief and three technical exercises) and Composing B (H543/04, 75 marks, 25 percent, at least 4 minutes, an OCR brief and a learner brief), how the routes differ, and what each requires.
- Composing to the OCR-set and learner-set briefs: interpreting a brief's requirements, developing musical ideas with coherence and craft, and structuring, scoring and refining a composition that satisfies the brief.
A focused answer to composing to a brief in OCR A-Level Music. Covers interpreting the OCR-set and learner-set briefs, developing and structuring musical ideas with coherence and craft (melody, harmony, texture, form and instrumentation), and the process of drafting, scoring and refining a composition that genuinely satisfies its brief.
- The two-part counterpoint and ground bass technical exercises (Composing A): writing a second independent line against a given part with good contrapuntal motion, and composing varied music over a repeating bass with implied harmony.
A focused answer to the two-part counterpoint and ground bass technical exercises in OCR A-Level Music Composing A. Covers writing an independent second line against a given part (consonance, contrary motion, avoiding consecutives, imitation), and composing varied, coherent music over a repeating ground bass with clear implied harmony, plus the common errors.
- Triads and seventh chords, their qualities and inversions, Roman-numeral and figured-bass labelling, and functional harmony (tonic, subdominant, dominant function and common progressions), as the harmonic vocabulary for analysis and the composing exercises.
A focused answer to chords and functional harmony for OCR A-Level Music. Covers triads and seventh chords, major, minor, diminished and augmented qualities, inversions and their figured-bass and Roman-numeral labelling, and functional harmony (tonic, predominant and dominant function, common progressions and the cycle of fifths), for analysis and the composing technical exercises.
- Harmonic devices and dissonance, the pedal point and drone, suspensions, passing and auxiliary notes, sequences, chromatic chords (secondary dominants, diminished and augmented sixths) and their resolution, as examined in analysis and used in the composing exercises.
A focused answer to harmonic devices and dissonance for OCR A-Level Music. Covers pedal points and drones, suspensions and their resolution, passing and auxiliary notes, harmonic sequences, and chromatic chords (secondary dominants, the Neapolitan and augmented sixths), explaining how dissonance creates and resolves tension, for analysis and the composing technical exercises.
Sources & how we know this
- OCR A Level Music (H543) specification — OCR (2016)