Melody, Harmony, Tonality

Melody, Harmony, Tonality

Author: E. Eugene Helm

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 0810886405

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Where did the major scale come from? Why does most traditional non-Western music not share Western principles of harmony? What does the inner structure of a canon have to do with religious belief? Why, in historical terms, is J.S. Bach’s music regarded as a perfect combination of melody and harmony? Why do clocks in church towers strike dominant-tonic-dominant-tonic? What do cathedrals have to do with monochords? How can the harmonic series be demonstrated with a rope tied to a doorknob, and how can it be heard by standing next to an electric fan? Why are the free ocean waves in Debussy’s La Mer, the turbulent river waves in Smetana’s Moldau, and the fountain ripples in Ravel’s Jeux d’Eau pushed at times into four-bar phrases? Why is the metric system inherently unsuitable for organizing music and poetry? In what way does Plato’s Timaeus resemble the prelude to Wagner’s Das Rheingold? Just how does Beethoven’s work perfectly illustrate fully functional tonality, and why were long-range works based on this type of tonality impossible before the introduction of equal temperament? In this new century, what promising materials are available to composers in the wake of harmonic experimentation and, some would argue, exhaustion? The answers to these seemingly complicated questions are not the sole province of music professors or orchestra conductors. In fact, as E. Eugene Helm demonstrates, they can just as easily be explained to amateurs, and their answers are important if we are to understand how Western music works. The full range of Western music is explored through 21 concise chapters on such topics as melody, harmony, counterpoint, texture, melody types, improvisation, music notation, free imitation, canon and fugue, vibration and its relation to harmony, tonality, and the place of music in architecture and astronomy. Intended for amateurs and professionals, concert-goers and conductors, Helm offers in down-to-earth language an explanation of the foundations of our Western music heritage, deepening our understanding and the listening experience of it for all.


Harmony Through Melody

Harmony Through Melody

Author: Charles Horton

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-10-15

Total Pages: 786

ISBN-13: 1538121484

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Harmony Through Melody:The Interaction of Melody, Counterpoint, and Harmony in Western Music, Second Editionoffers a robust, composition-based approach to tonal music theory, ranging from early modality to recent film and popular music. Charles Horton, David A. Byrne, and Lawrence Ritchey develop techniques and strategies for exploring the fundamental interaction of melody and counterpoint with harmony, and provide students with opportunities to creatively express what they have learned in the writing and analysis of short passages and complete pieces in historical styles. This second edition contains additional examples from the standard literature, film music, and popular song, and features new assignments involving late nineteenth-century chromatic practice. The textbook present a step-by-step method for the composition and analysis of short passages and complete pieces, with more than 1400 musical examples drawn from a variety of styles and genres, plus classroom-tested examples for study and suggested assignments at the end of each chapter. The second edition has an online companion website (textbooks.rowman.com/horton2e) featuring: A student workbook with more than 260 assignments for individual work and classroom use Audio links to 315 newly-recorded live performances of model compositions and fully realized settings An instructor’s manual with guidelines for evaluation of assignments, additional repertoire for in-class analysis and assignments, sample syllabi, and other useful information is also available. Please email [email protected] for more information.


Hearing Harmony

Hearing Harmony

Author: Christopher Doll

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2017-05-30

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 0472053523

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An original, listener-based approach to harmony for popular music from the rock era of the 1950s to the present


The Oxford Handbook of Critical Concepts in Music Theory

The Oxford Handbook of Critical Concepts in Music Theory

Author: Alexander Rehding

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 849

ISBN-13: 0190454741

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Music Theory operates with a number of fundamental terms that are rarely explored in detail. This book offers in-depth reflections on key concepts from a range of philosophical and critical approaches that reflect the diversity of the contemporary music theory landscape.


A Geometry of Music

A Geometry of Music

Author: Dmitri Tymoczko

Publisher: OUP USA

Published: 2011-03-21

Total Pages: 469

ISBN-13: 0195336674

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In this groundbreaking book, Tymoczko uses contemporary geometry to provide a new framework for thinking about music, one that emphasizes the commonalities among styles from Medieval polyphony to contemporary jazz.


Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony

Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony

Author:

Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation

Published: 1996-05-01

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 1476863121

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(Jazz Book). A study of three basic outlines used in jazz improv and composition, based on a study of hundreds of examples from great jazz artists.


Music in the Galant Style

Music in the Galant Style

Author: Robert Gjerdingen

Publisher: OUP USA

Published: 2007-10-05

Total Pages: 527

ISBN-13: 0195313712

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Music in the Galant Style is an authoritative and readily understandable study of the core compositional style of the eighteenth century. Gjerdingen adopts a unique approach, based on a massive but little-known corpus of pedagogical workbooks used by the most influential teachers of the century, the Italian partimenti. He has brought this vital repository of compositional methods into confrontation with a set of schemata distilled from an enormous body of eighteenth-century music, much of it known only to specialists, formative of the "galant style."


Hollywood Harmony

Hollywood Harmony

Author: Frank Lehman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 0190606398

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Film music often tells us how to feel, but it also guides us how to hear. Filmgoing is an intensely musical experience, one in which the soundtrack structures our interpretations and steers our emotions. Hollywood Harmony explores the inner workings of film music, bringing together tools from music theory, musicology, and music psychology in this first ever book-length analytical study of this culturally central repertoire. Harmony, and especially chromaticism, is emblematic of the "film music sound," and it is often used to evoke that most cinematic of feelings-wonder. To help parse this familiar but complex musical style, Hollywood Harmony offers a first-of-its kind introduction to neo-Riemannian theory, a recently developed and versatile method of understanding music as a dynamic and transformational process, rather than a series of inert notes on a page. This application of neo-Riemannian theory to film music is perfect way in for curious newcomers, while also constituting significant scholarly contribution to the larger discipline of music theory. Author Frank Lehman draws from his extensive knowledge of cinematic history with case-studies that range from classics of Golden Age Hollywood to massive contemporary franchises to obscure cult-films. Special emphasis is placed on scores for major blockbusters such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Inception. With over a hundred meticulously transcribed music examples and more than two hundred individual movies discussed, Hollywood Harmony will fascinate any fan of film and music.


Songwriting Strategies

Songwriting Strategies

Author: Mark Simos

Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation

Published: 2014-05-01

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1480395765

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(Berklee Guide). Write songs starting from any direction: melody, lyric, harmony, rhythm, or idea. This book will help you expand your range and flexibility as a songwriter. Discussions, hands-on exercises, and notated examples will help you hone your craft. This creatively liberating approach supports the overall integrity of emotion and meaning in your songs. It will help you become more productive, versatile, and innovative in your songwriting. You will learn to: * Discover more ideas for songs song seeds and capture them in their most powerful and usable form * Overcome writer's block by having many more pathways through the writing process * Develop strong song structures by working independently with melody, lyrics, harmony, and rhythm * Write songs more easily, guided by your well-tuned "songwriter's compass"