Counterpoint
Recommended Books
In the print Music Collection, historical studies on counterpoint are classified in ML 446 and analytical works are in MT 55. Meanwhile, additional books specific to the fugue, an important contrapuntal genre, can be found in ML 448 and MT 59. Also run subject searches for terms like counterpoint, fugue, and others. The recommended books below are sorted by their call numbers. Hover over the info icon to see a description of the book.
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A Practical Approach to Sixteenth-Century Counterpoint
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Practical work in writing counterpoint! Gauldin emphasizes the acquisition of writing skills in the contrapuntal discipline and the simulation of sixteenth-century sacred polyphonic idioms in this volume. The author follows a didactic method of a non-species or direct approach. While no previous contrapuntal training is necessary to absorb this material, some acquaintance with Baroque polyphonic terminology proves helpful. Key features include: musical examples illustrating specific devices are taken from musical literature or composed by the author; demonstrates the possibility of employing a single given pitch series within the contexts of different compositional techniques; includes a collection of complete or excerpted movements drawn from musical literature at the conclusion of each major textual division; emphasizes Palestrina and the Counter-Reformation sacred style; discusses various compositional procedures of the late Renaissance, including paraphrase, cantus firmus, familiar style, parody, polychoral technique, and chromaticism.
Call Number: ML446 .G38 1995Publication Date: 1995 -
Fugue in the Sixteenth Century
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Examining the roots of the classical fugue and the early history of non-canonic fugal writing, Paul Walker's Fugue in the Sixteenth Century explores the three principal fugal genres of the period: motet, ricercar, and canzona. The volume treats each genre in turn, tracing the fugue's development throughout the century and highlighting important moments and trends along the way. Taking a two-tiered approach, Walker, on one level, examines fugue from the perspective of contemporary musicians, and on another level, takes into account fugue's later history and the elements that came to play a significant role in its formation. Walker is the first scholar to successfully tie together the various strands of the "pre-Bach fugue" thanks to the growing availability of editions of the repertories involved. He also takes account of recent work elucidating the change in compositional approach around 1500 from a basis in cantus firmus and canon to one favoring non-canonical, fugal imitation. Featuring well-chosen musical examples to illustrate the compositional developments of the sixteenth century, Fugue in the Sixteenth Century is a definitive study for both specialist musicologists and organists and harpsichordists alike.
Call Number: ML446 .W35547 2021Publication Date: 2021 -
Theories of Fugue from the Age of Josquin to the Age of Bach
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Few bodies of Western music are as widely respected, studied, and emulated as the fugues of Johann Sebastian Bach. Despite the esteem which Bach's contributions brought to the genre, however, the origin and early history of the fugue remain poorly understood. Theories of Fugue from the Age of Josquin to the Age of Bach addresses both the history and methodology of the pre-Bach fugue [from roughly 1500 to 1700], and, of greatest significance to the literature, it seeks to present a way out of the methodological dilemma of uncertainty which has plagued previous scholarly attempts by considering what musicians of the time had to say about the fugue: what it was, what it was not, how important it was, and where and how a composer should [or shouldn't] use it.
Call Number: ML448 .W25 2000Publication Date: 2000 -
Steps to Parnassus: The Study of Counterpoint
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The most celebrated book on counterpoint is Fux's great theoretical work Gradus ad Parnassum. Since its appearance in 1725, it has been used by and has directly influenced the work of many of the greatest composers. J.S. Bach held it in high esteem, Leopold Mozart trained his famous son from its pages, Haydn worked out every lesson with meticulous care, and Beethoven condensed it into an abstract for ready reference. An impressive list of nineteenth-century composers subscribed to its second edition, and in more recent times Paul Hindemith said, "Perhaps the craft of composition would really have fallen into decline if Fux's Gradus had not set up a standard." Originally written in Latin, Steps to Parnassus was translated into the principal European languages, but the only English version was a free paraphrase published in 1886. The present translation by Alfred Mann is therefore the first faithful rendering in English from the original Latin and presents the essence of Fux's teachings.
Call Number: MT40 .F83 1943Publication Date: 1943 -
A Practical Approach to Eighteenth-Century Counterpoint
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Practical work in writing counterpoint! This volume emphasizes developing analytical and writing skills in the contrapuntal technique of the eighteenth century. The orientation is strongly stylistic, dealing mainly with the polyphony of the late Baroque period. Three aspects are stressed throughout: practical work in writing counterpoint, utilizing various textures, devices, and genre of the period; historical background, to establish the origins of different forms and justify the pedagogical method employed here; analysis of selections from music literature, often in voice-leading reductions. After an opening chapter that reviews some general features of the late Baroque period, there is a brief survey of melodic characteristics, and a study of procedures associated with two, three, and four voices.
Call Number: MT55 .G34 1995Publication Date: 1995 -
Counterpoint: The Polyphonic Vocal Style of the Sixteenth Century
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This classic introductory text focuses on the polyphonic vocal style perfected by Palestrina. Unlike many other texts, it maintains a careful balance between theoretical and practical problems, between historical and systematic methodology. The result is an exceptionally useful resource, ideal for classroom use in teaching modal counterpoint. In Part One, Knud Jeppesen (1892–1974), the world-renowned musicologist and leading authority on Palestrina, offers a superb outline history of contrapuntal theory. He begins by exploring the beginnings of contrapuntal theory from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries. This is followed by separate discussions of each succeeding century, the styles of Palestrina and Bach, the "Palestrina Movement" after Fux, and more. The section ends with illuminating coverage of notation, the ecclesiastical modes, melody, and harmony. The second part of the book contains an extended treatment of "species" counterpoint in two, three, and four parts, as well as counterpoint in more than four parts, and specific discussions of the canon, the motet, and the Mass. Throughout, the text is generously supplied with musical examples―exercises, solutions, and illustrations, including many by the great composers.
Call Number: MT55.J45 K63Publication Date: 1939 -
Counterpoint: Based on Eighteenth-Century Practice
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Designed for courses in beginning and advanced counterpoint, this established text introduces the contrapuntal style of 17th- and 18th-century music through analysis and writing. While a limited understanding of contrapuntal elements may be gained through analysis alone, these elements are grasped in a more intimate way through the actual writing of contrapuntal examples. Also, by linking the study of counterpoint to music of a specific period, the text provides a clear model for students to emulate and a definite basis for the criticism of student work.
Call Number: MT55 .K53 1999Publication Date: 1998 -
Modal and Tonal Counterpoint: From Josquin to Stravinsky
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This is a comprehensive study of the development of counterpoint form the sixteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century. Deriving the rules of counterpoint from the music itself, each chapter begins with a complete musical example followed by questions for class discussion. Chapter observations and subsequent musical examples amplify the concepts discovered through individual analysis.
Call Number: MT55 .O97 1992Publication Date: 1992 -
Twentieth-Century Counterpoint: A Guide for Students
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Twentieth-Century Counterpoint: A Guide for Students gives a clear technical description of the various contrapuntal methods used by a number of the most important modern composers. An introductory chapter describes the historical development of counterpoint up to the end of the nineteenth century, followed by analyses of the methods of such turn-of-the-century composers as Reger, Mahler, Strauss, and Schoenberg. Next come detailed discussions of five of the leading influences in modern music: Stravinsky and his particular diatonic methods, Milhaud and polytonality, Bartók and the use of dissonance, Hindemith and his chromatic system (with particular reference to his book The Craft of Musical Composition), and finally Schoenberg and the twelve-tone school. There follows a section on some interesting independent composers. This book contains a number of practical exercises for students to work and many musical examples.
Call Number: MT55 .S37 1979Publication Date: 1979 -
Counterpoint: A Translation of Kontrapunkt
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The translation of Schenker's Neue Musikalische Theorien und Phantasien is now complete, Harmony (vol. 1) having appeared in 1954 and Free Composition (vol. 3) in 1979. These volumes were first published in 1910 and 1922, respectively. In them, Schenker gives a thorough and detailed explication of species counterpoint, critiquing the writings of 17 other theorists and writers from Johann Fux through Hugo Riemann. He also refers to contemporary composers, among them Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, and Hans Pfitzner, usually with less than approval. The preface to the second volume reflects his disillusion, if not bitterness, in the aftermath of World War I. His writing here is more polemical and chauvinistic than in any other of the translated works. The heart of the matter, however, is the presentation of two-voice counterpoint in Volume 1; the detail involved is evident from the start, when he devotes two chapters of more than 90 pages to a discussion of the cantus firmus. Three- and four-voice counterpoint are treated in Volume 2 with a brief chapter given to five- to eight-voice counterpoint. The last third of that volume is devoted to "Bridges to Free Composition." Appended to both volumes are endnotes and bibliographies of Schenker's works, both in German and in translation, and of works he cites. The translation and scholarly apparatus are commendable, the music examples, typography, and layout excellent.
Call Number: MT55 .S2413 1987 V.1-2Publication Date: 1987 -
The Art of Counterpoint: Part Three of Le institutioni harmoniche, 1558
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Written by the Renaissance theorist Gioseffo Zarlino, The Art of Counterpoint concerns the materials and methods of composition for voices. The eighty chapters are arranged in a logical progression of intricacy, beginning with the materials of counterpoint, intervals, rules of consonance and dissonance, and proceeding finally to a discussion of chromaticism and its faults.
Call Number: MT55 .Z2313Publication Date: 1968 -
The Art of Fugue: Bach Fugues for Keyboard, 1715-1750 (Print and eBook)
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Fugue for J. S. Bach was a natural language; he wrote fugues in organ toccatas and voluntaries, in masses and motets, in orchestral and chamber music, and even in his sonatas for violin solo. The more intimate fugues he wrote for keyboard are among the greatest, most influential, and best-loved works in all of Western music. They have long been the foundation of the keyboard repertory, played by beginning students and world-famous virtuosi alike. In a series of elegantly written essays, eminent musicologist Joseph Kerman discusses his favorite Bach keyboard fugues--some of them among the best-known fugues and others much less familiar. Kerman skillfully, at times playfully, reveals the inner workings of these pieces, linking the form of the fugues with their many different characters and expressive qualities, and illuminating what makes them particularly beautiful, powerful, and moving.
Call Number: MT59 .K49 2005 and JSTOR BooksPublication Date: 2005
Interlibrary Loan
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