In AP Music Theory, the tenor is the second-lowest of the four SATB voices, positioned above the bass and below the alto, with a range of roughly C3 to B4. In chorale-style part-writing, the tenor is an inner voice that must stay within an octave of the alto but may sit more than an octave above the bass.
The tenor is one of the four standard voice parts in SATB texture (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), the format the AP exam uses for figured bass realization, chorale harmonization, and harmonic dictation. Per essential knowledge DES-1.C.1, these labels describe a line's pitch position relative to the other lines. The tenor is the second voice from the bottom, harmonizing above the bass and below the alto.
The tenor's vocal range runs roughly from C3 to B4. In four-part writing on the grand staff, the tenor shares the bass clef with the bass voice, with tenor stems pointing up and bass stems pointing down. Because the tenor is an inner voice, you usually have the most freedom (and the most error potential) here. It's where spacing problems, doubling mistakes, and crossed voices love to hide.
The tenor lives in Unit 4, Topic 4.2 (SATB Voice Leading) and supports learning objectives 4.2.A through 4.2.D. LO 4.2.A asks you to describe a line's position relative to other lines, which is literally what "tenor" means. LOs 4.2.B-4.2.D require you to apply 18th-century spelling, doubling, spacing, and voice-leading conventions, and the tenor is where most of those rules get tested. The big one is spacing. Adjacent upper voices (soprano-alto and alto-tenor) must stay within an octave of each other, but the tenor-to-bass interval is allowed to exceed an octave. If you don't know which gap gets the exception, you'll mark correct chords as errors and vice versa. Every part-writing skill from Units 4 through 8 (seventh chords, secondary dominants, modulation) assumes you can handle the tenor line correctly.
Keep studying AP Music Theory Unit 4
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view galleryAlto (Unit 4)
The alto and tenor are the two inner voices, and they're a matched pair on the exam. They must stay within an octave of each other, they often move by step or hold common tones, and on part-writing FRQs they're usually the two lines you have to compose yourself.
Bass (Unit 4)
The tenor sits directly above the bass, and this is the one place spacing rules relax. Tenor and bass can be more than an octave apart, which is why a low bass C2 under a tenor E3 is fine but the same gap between alto and tenor would be an error.
Crossed Voices (Unit 4)
Voice crossing happens when the tenor sings above the alto or below the bass. Since the tenor is bordered by voices on both sides, it's the most common place to spot (or accidentally write) a crossing in error-detection questions.
Four-Part Harmony (Units 4-8)
SATB four-part texture is the default format for every harmony exercise from Unit 4 onward. Once secondary dominants and modulation show up in Units 7 and 8, you're still managing the same tenor line, just with more accidentals in it.
The tenor shows up everywhere the exam uses four-part texture. On the part-writing FRQs (realizing a figured bass or Roman numeral progression in SATB), you write the tenor line yourself and get scored on whether it follows 18th-century conventions, including correct doubling, no parallel fifths or octaves with other voices, and legal spacing. On harmonic dictation FRQs like the 2017 and 2024 questions, the prompt gives you the soprano and bass notes, and you identify the harmony, which means hearing the inner voices (alto and tenor) without seeing them notated. Multiple-choice questions test the spacing rule directly. A classic stem voices a chord such as bass C3, tenor E3, alto G3, soprano C5 and asks you to evaluate the spacing. The trap is the alto-to-soprano gap of more than an octave, not the tenor. Know which adjacent pairs have the octave limit (soprano-alto, alto-tenor) and which one doesn't (tenor-bass).
Both are inner voices, but the alto sits above the tenor (it's the second voice from the top, written in the treble clef with stems down), while the tenor is the second voice from the bottom (written in the bass clef with stems up). The practical difference for part-writing is their neighbors. The alto must stay within an octave of both the soprano and the tenor, while the tenor only has an octave limit on its alto side. Its gap to the bass below can be as wide as you want.
The tenor is the second-lowest voice in SATB texture, harmonizing above the bass and below the alto, with a range of roughly C3 to B4.
Adjacent upper voices (soprano-alto and alto-tenor) must stay within an octave, but the tenor and bass may be more than an octave apart. This exception is a favorite MCQ trap.
On the grand staff, the tenor shares the bass clef with the bass voice. Tenor stems point up, bass stems point down.
Voice crossing errors often involve the tenor, since it must stay below the alto and above the bass at all times.
On part-writing FRQs you compose the tenor line yourself, and on harmonic dictation FRQs you hear it without seeing it, since only soprano and bass are notated.
The tenor is the second-lowest of the four SATB voice parts, sitting above the bass and below the alto, with a range of approximately C3 to B4. It's one of the two inner voices you write yourself on part-writing FRQs.
Yes. The tenor-bass interval is the one adjacent pair with no octave limit in 18th-century spacing conventions. Soprano-alto and alto-tenor must each stay within an octave, but tenor and bass can spread wider.
The alto is the second voice from the top and the tenor is the second from the bottom. The alto is written in the treble clef with stems down, the tenor in the bass clef with stems up, and the alto has octave spacing limits on both sides while the tenor only has one on its alto side.
Yes, in standard 18th-century part-writing the tenor must stay above the bass and below the alto. If the tenor moves above the alto or below the bass, that's a crossed-voices error, which error-detection questions frequently test.
Usually not. Harmonic dictation FRQs (like 2017 and 2024) give you only the soprano and bass notes, and composition FRQs typically have you write the missing lines yourself. The tenor is one of the inner voices you supply or infer.
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