Why are parallel fifths forbidden?

In common-practice style they blur the independence of the voices and the characteristic blend of the texture; the prohibition describes a stylistic norm, not an acoustic flaw, and other idioms use parallel fifths freely.

What is a tendency tone?

A pitch that, within a key, strongly pulls toward resolution in a particular direction — most notably the leading tone rising to the tonic and the chordal seventh falling by step.

Voice Leading and Part-Writing

The conventions that govern how individual melodic voices move smoothly from chord to chord.

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Definition

The set of conventions governing how the individual voices of a texture move from one chord to the next so that each line is coherent and the whole sounds idiomatic.

Scope

Covers the principles of connecting chords through the motion of individual voices: spacing and doubling, types of motion (parallel, similar, contrary, oblique), the prohibition of parallel fifths and octaves, resolution of tendency tones, and standard part-writing of four-voice chorale textures. Excludes the functional labeling of the chords themselves, treated under tonal harmony.

Core questions

How are voices spaced and chord tones doubled?
What are the four types of voice motion?
Why are parallel fifths and octaves avoided in common-practice style?
How do tendency tones such as the leading tone and chordal seventh resolve?
How is a four-part chorale realized from a given harmonic progression?

Key concepts

Spacing and doubling
Parallel, similar, contrary, and oblique motion
Parallel fifths and octaves
Tendency-tone resolution
Leading-tone treatment
Chordal seventh resolution
Four-part chorale texture

History

Voice-leading conventions distilled from the practice of the common-practice masters were codified in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century thoroughbass and harmony treatises and remain central to harmony pedagogy through texts such as Aldwell and Schachter.

Key figures

Heinrich Schenker
Carl Schachter

Seminal works

aldwell2019
kostka2018

Frequently asked questions

Why are parallel fifths forbidden?: In common-practice style they blur the independence of the voices and the characteristic blend of the texture; the prohibition describes a stylistic norm, not an acoustic flaw, and other idioms use parallel fifths freely.
What is a tendency tone?: A pitch that, within a key, strongly pulls toward resolution in a particular direction — most notably the leading tone rising to the tonic and the chordal seventh falling by step.