Institutioni Harmoniche
Institutioni Harmoniche

Author: Gioseffo Zarlino

Publisher: W. W. Norton

Published: 1976

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 9780393008333

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Zarlino's Le Istitutioni harmoniche, published in 1558, is one of the most influential music treatises of all time. To his contemporaries it revealed the secrets of composition he had learned from Adrian Willaert, who brought to Italy the polyphonic art of the Netherlands. To the modern scholar Zarlino's treatise illumines the compositional technique of the golden age of vocal polyphony. The essence of this art is contained in Part III, "The Art of Counterpoint," which is here translated into English for the first time.

Mendelssohn's Musical Education
Mendelssohn's Musical Education

Author: R. Larry Todd

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1983-04-21

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 9780521246552

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This book is a study and critical edition of Mendelssohn's composition exercise book from his early period of study with Carl Friedrich Zelter (1819-1821). The workbook illustrates in considerable detail the young musician's struggle to master the rules of part writing and principles of counterpoint. Much of Zelter's systematic teaching method is grounded in the eighteenth-century theoretical tradition of Berlin; not surprisingly, the exercises bear the stamp of the music of J. S. Bach, which heavily influenced such Berlin musicians as C. P. E. Bach, C. F. C. Fasch, Marpurg, Kirnberger, Zelter and Mendelssohn. There is little doubt that the historicist attitude of the mature Mendelssohn - as seen in his efforts to revive the works of Bach and Handel and in his propensity toward strict contrapuntal techniques in his own music - was conditioned by these studies with Zelter. The publication of the workbook sheds new light on the early development of one ofthe most important nineteenth-century composers who, though affected by the new wave of romanticism that swept over Europe, never lost his respect for the past. No less important, the manuscript includes several previously unpublished pieces which rank among Mendelssohn's earliest compositions.

Study of Counterpoint
Study of Counterpoint

Author: Johann Fux

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1965

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9780393002775

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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 great composers, including J.S. Bach, Haydn, and Beethoven. Originally written in Latin, this work has been translated in to the principal European languages. The present translation by Alfred Mann is the first faithful rendering in English, presenting the essence of Fux's teachings.

The Art of Counterpoint
The Art of Counterpoint

Author: C. H. Kitson

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2017-11-15

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9780331120561

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Excerpt from The Art of Counterpoint: And Its Application as a Decorative Principle The appearance of a new book on Counterpoint, when there are already in existence numerous treatises on the subject, may seem to demand some justification. All books on Counterpoint must of necessity bear a certain resemblance to each other. Any difference must be sought in the point of View, in the relative prominence given to various phases of the subject, and in the treatment of detail, rather than in the statement of general truths or in novelty of arrangement. The history and the broad outlines of Counterpoint offer little scope for originality, and in these matters the present work will be found not unlike its predecessors. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Counterpoint: A Memoir of Bach and Mourning
Counterpoint: A Memoir of Bach and Mourning

Author: Philip Kennicott

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2020-02-18

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0393635376

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A Pulitzer Prize–winning critic’s “lyrical and haunting” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker) reflection on the meaning and emotional impact of a Bach masterwork. As his mother was dying, Philip Kennicott began to listen to the music of Bach obsessively. It was the only music that didn’t seem trivial or irrelevant, and it enabled him to both experience her death and remove himself from it. For him, Bach’s music held the elements of both joy and despair, life and its inevitable end. He spent the next five years trying to learn one of the composer’s greatest keyboard masterpieces, the Goldberg Variations. In Counterpoint, he recounts his efforts to rise to the challenge, and to fight through his grief by coming to terms with his memories of a difficult, complicated childhood. He describes the joys of mastering some of the piano pieces, the frustrations that plague his understanding of others, the technical challenges they pose, and the surpassing beauty of the melodies, harmonies, and counterpoint that distinguish them. While exploring Bach’s compositions he sketches a cultural history of playing the piano in the twentieth century. And he raises two questions that become increasingly interrelated, not unlike a contrapuntal passage in one of the variations itself: What does it mean to know a piece of music? What does it mean to know another human being?

Counterpoint
Counterpoint

Author: Markand Thakar

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 1990-01-01

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 9780300046380

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Counterpoint manuals have long been central to the music education of composers, historians, and theorists. In this book a conductor uses counterpoint exercises to aid musicians in becoming sensitive to the fundamental ingredients of good music making.