Definition of species counterpoint
1
: a traditional method of instruction in 16th-century counterpoint based on five increasingly demanding types of two-voice contrapuntal writing based on a preexisting cantus firmus
- The discipline of species counterpoint was first put forth by Johann Joseph Fux in Gradus ad Parnassum (1725) as a tool for teaching composers.
- —Markand Thakar, Counterpoint, 1990
2
: counterpoint that follows the rules of species counterpoint
- More recently, Schubert's exercises in species counterpoint and fugue for Salieri and Sechter have attracted attention …
- —R. Larry Todd, Mendelssohn's Musical Education, 1983
