Stage two summary (preparation of score and identification of foreground elaborations) [previous stage / next stage] In the second stage, notes are grouped into elaborations of the harmonies identified in stage one. With a few common exceptions, stage two is concerned with elaborations of single harmonies - the larger-scale connections across harmonies is the business of stage three. Preparation of score Represent each note with a stemless quarter (crotchet) note head Remove bar lines Remove consecutively repeated notes or phrases as appropriate Foreground elaborations Identify any direct elaborations of foreground harmonies with slurs and appropriate labels: arpeggiation (Arp.) linear progressions (3-prg, 4-prg etc) neighbor notes (N) two-note arpeggiations between voices (slur) Consider representing repeated arpeggiating patterns (e.g. Alberti bass) as simple chords (see compound melody) There are several common issues with this sort of foreground analysis that you need to be aware of (click on each for more details): passing notes between two harmonies chromatic passing notes six-four (second inversion) chords implied harmonies Note the following in the example below: the repeated chords in the left hand are removed as part of preparing the score as well as the repeated G in the right hand. Occasionally it is clearer to leave repeated notes in (e.g. if the harmony changes), but usually it is best to omit them from your analysis. the skip from D down to G is identified as an arpeggiation. Although skips such as this are usually best understood in terms of compound melody, it is nevertheless a good idea at this early stage of the analysis to mark such foreground elaborations so that everything is as clear as possible for the layer analysis of stage three. the last B and the G in the extract are not connected because they are from different harmonies.