Fifth Species

SPECIES Five combines the rules of the first four species, along with a few extra possibilities. These extra possibilities are extensions of the fourth species rules which take into account the use of quarter notes (crotchets).
We have seen in fourth species that a suspended dissonance on the first beat is resolved to a consonance a step lower on the third beat. In fifth species the resolution may also occur on the second beat (figure 1). Although Fux presents this in a different way in the text, he does use this type of resolution in several examples.
figure1
Parallel (consecutive) octaves and unisons must be avoided here, just as in fourth species.
When resolving a dissonant ligature, it is also possible to insert on the second beat a consonant note a fifth lower than the dissonance, followed by the resolution on the third beat, which is as usual a step lower than the dissonant note (figure 2).
figure 2

An example from Gradus


Fux advises regarding bar 5 of this example, that following the two crotchets at the start of the bar with a minim makes the melodic line 'lag'.
He suggests that it would be better to use any of the following figurations to maintain impetus:

Notes on the use of the applet

The buttons for adding notes use North American terminology (e.g. half instead of minim).
If either the 'half + quarter' or 'half + half' button is selected, the mouse must be in the second half of a measure in order to enter the note. That is, a half-note (minim) tied to another half, or to a quarter (crotchet), cannot be entered on any beat other than the third. Also, neither of these buttons can be used to enter notes in the penultimate bar, as the final bar is not allowed to contain any value other than a whole note (semibreve).
The examples that Fux provides for the two part exercises in fifth species exclusively use the fourth species ending formula, i.e. in the penultimate bar a tied seventh dropping to a major sixth. This practice has been adopted for the applet, hence any other ending will be considered an error.
Fux allows the use of two eighth-notes (quavers) on beats two and four. The applet does not currently allow quavers.

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