Summary
Second species counterpoint is the style in which two notes are set against each note of the cantus firmus (one semibreve or whole note), producing a more active line than first species — the “two notes against one” species, and the first to introduce regular dissonance through the passing tone. It is taught in duple time, where each measure divides into a strong downward beat (thesis) and a weak upward beat (arsis). The thesis note must be consonant; the arsis note may be dissonant only under strict conditions.
A complete canonical illustration is Fux’s Fig. 33 (Gradus ad Parnassum), the corrected reworking of Fig. 26 — identified in the ingested analysis as Fux’s Dorian solution over the cantus D F E D G F A G F E D, corresponding to Mann Fig. 33, the corrected version of Joseph’s exercise, and encoded as I/sp2/gap_033.krn. It is a two-voice, eleven-bar exercise in cut time, cantus firmus in whole notes in the lower voice, half-note counterpoint above, ending on the modal final D. The same exercise also shows Fux breaking a Palestrina rule later codified by Jeppesen, a reminder that textbook practice can diverge from the practice it claims to teach.
A material discrepancy remains about the
See also: Third species counterpoint, Cambiata, Dissonance Curve Computation, Consonance/Dissonance Concept (CDC), Fourth Species Counterpoint