active voice

Examples of active voice in the following topics:

• Avoiding Passive Voice

  • A way to focus your sentences on action and actors is to use the active voice rather than the passive voice.
  • The active voice also eliminates the vagueness and ambiguity that often characterize the passive voice.
  • The active voice keeps the focus of the sentence on the action.
  • In business writing, the use of the active voice is important to get people to answer a call to action.
  • A memo written in the active voice will have a greater impact than one written in the passive voice.

• Active Voice vs. Passive Voice

  • The active voice is more frequently used in non-scientific writing.
  • Most sentences can be phrased to be in either active or passive voice.
  • The use of active voice is more direct and provides information about who performed the action.
  • The passive-voice construction of this sentence emphasizes "Jamey" more effectively than the active-voice equivalent.
  • The majority of your sentences should be in active voice.

• The Passive Voice

  • Verbs can occur in two different voices, active and passive. 
  • Until now, you have experienced mostly the active voice, in which the subject acts upon the direct object, e,g., The dog loves the family. 
  • The passive verb endings are similar to the active but with a few important differences. 
  • The passive voice occurs in both indicative and subjunctive but uses the same endings in each.

• Nouns as Subjects and Objects

  • If a sentence is written in the active voice, it means that the subject comes before the verb, and the object follows the verb.
  • All of the examples above are written in the active voice.
  • A simple way to identify whether a noun is a subject or an object in an active-voice sentence is to note where it is in the sentence.
  • In passive-voice sentences, the usual rules do not apply.
  • In a passive-voice sentence, keep in mind that the order will be subject–verb phrase–object.

• Structures Used in Voice Production

  • These basic mechanisms work together to create the voice.
  • If they are altered, the produced voice will also be altered as well.
  • The articulatory gesture of the active place of articulation involves the more mobile part of the vocal tract.
  • It is considered active because these areas change the consonant pronounced by moving or changing.
  • Places of articulation (active and passive): 1.

• Introduction to Strict Voice-Leading

  • The study of the theory of Western music involves three main components: voice-leading, harmony, and form.
  • However, of the three, voice-leading is the most fundamental.
  • Thus, we begin our study of music theory, then, with strict voice-leading, or counterpoint.
  • On the other hand, music that constantly activates our innate sense of danger is hardly pleasant for most listeners.
  • While Fux proposed five species, moving from two-voice combinations up to six- and eight-voice combinations, we will focus on species one through four, in two voices only.

• Voices

• Types of Motion

  • In parallel motion, two voices move in the same direction by the same generic interval.
  • For example, the following two voices both move up by a step.
  • This will always be true when two voices move in parallel motion.
  • For example, the following two voices both move down, but the upper voice moves by step while the lower voice moves by leap.
  • In oblique motion, one voice is stationary, while the other voice moves (in either direction).

• Vocal Ranges

  • A typical choral arrangement divides women into higher and lower voices and men into higher or lower voices.
  • Arrangements for these four voices are labelled SATB (for Soprano Alto Tenor Bass).
  • Contralto – Contralto and alto originally referred to the same voice.
  • Baritone – A male voice that falls in between tenor and bass
  • These are approximate, average ranges for each voice category.

• Introduction to Thoroughbass

  • harmonic "reductions" of pieces and passages with dense textures or complicated voice-leading
  • Master it early, and subsequent activities will be much easier.
  • This distinction will be important for our study of voice-leading.
  • However, any other alteration in the upper voices (such as a raised leading tone in minor) must be reflected in the figure.
  • A brief history of basso continuo keyboard-style voice-leading - Open Music Theory