Counterpoint is one of the technical processes of music writing. The object of contrapuntal practice is to empower you to add melody to melody - or to obtain a blend of two, three, or more tone-lines that agree with each other harmonically and yet are sufficiently independent of each other to present really different melodic lines.
Briefly Defined:
- Melody is a succession, or continuous line, of single tones.
- Harmony is a succession of chords or vertical columns of tones that harmonize in their simultaneous presentation.
- Counterpoint is the agreeable combination of individually perfect, but independent, melodies.
What You'll Learn in Elementary 18th-19th Century Counterpoint
Chapter 1: The Single Melodic Line
Chapter 2: Wider Leaps
Chapter 3: Exceptional Progressions - Minor Mode
Chapter 4: The Combination of Two Melodic Lines
Chapter 5: The Minor Mode
Chapter 6: Exceptional Intervals: Major and Minor
Chapter 7: Rhythmic Diversity - Two Notes to a Given Beat
Chapter 8: Modulations
Chapter 9: Three Notes To A Beat
Chapter 10: Syncopation, Or Shifted Rhythm
Chapter 11: The Tie, Continued, Rests
Chapter 12: Four Notes To A Beat
Chapter 13: Four Notes To A Beat, As Amplified Forms
Chapter 14: Rhythmic Movement in Different Parts
Chapter 15: Motive Development Imitation
Chapter 16: Three-Part Harmony and As Melodic Harmonization
Chapter 17: Secondary Chords and Sequences
Chapter 18: With Modulations and Altered Steps
Chapter 19: Contrapuntal Harmony
Chapter 20: Three-Part Counterpoint
Chapter 21: Motive Development With Three Contrapuntal Parts
Chapter 22: Four-Part Harmony
Chapter 23: Modulations
Chapter 24: Contrapuntal Four-Part Harmony
Chapter 25: Four-Part Counterpoint
Chapter 26: Motive Development
212 pgs.
Please click on the Contents tab above for a detailed Table of Contents for this book.
With The Serious Composer™ series, four of Dr. Goetschius' major works have been re-published and re-edited for easier reading of the material. His recommended order of study is as follows:
- Elementary 18th-19th Century Counterpoint
- The Homophonic Forms of Musical Composition
- Counterpoint Applied
- The Larger Forms of Musical Composition
A good working knowledge of beginning harmony and counterpoint as covered in Applied Professional Harmony 101 and 102 is recommended to get the most out of the books in this series.
About Percy Goetshcius
Richard Rodgers (of Rodgers & Hammerstein) said that Percy Goetschius was to harmony what Gray was to anatomy. Rodgers should know, as Dr. Goetschius was Richard Rodgers' teacher at the school that later became Juilliard.
Dr. Goetschius' list of students was a true Who's Who of composers - and composers whose lives spanned into the early 21st Century. Included among them are: Richard Rodgers, Howard Hanson, Leo Ornstein, Wallingford Riegger, Samuel Gardner, Arthur Loesser, and more. Outside of Nadia Boulanger, it's doubtful that any other single music teacher has had such a profound impact on his students as Percy Goetschius did.
What we know of Dr. Goetschius was found online through the Passaic County Historical Society, Lambert Castle, in Paterson, NJ, USA.
Percy Goetschius is a native Patersonian who has won international fame in the teaching of the theory of composition. Born in this city in 1853, he was a piano pupil of Robert E. H. Gehring, a prominent teacher of that era. Mr. Goetschius was the organist of the Second Presbyterian Church 1868-1870 and of the First Presbyterian 1870-73, and pianist of Mr. Benson’s Paterson Choral Society. He went to Stuttgart, Wurtenberg, in 1873 to study in the conservatory, and soon advanced to the teaching ranks. The King conferred upon him the title of royal professor. He composed much, and reviewed performances for the press. In 1892 he took a like position in the New England Conservatory, Boston, and four years later opened a studio in that city. In 1905 he went to the staff of the New York Institute of Music and Art, headed by Dr. Frank Damrosch. Prof. Goetschius has published nine textbooks on theory, which are accepted as standards in the musical world.
TABLE OF CONTENTS - The Serious Composer™, Vol. 1: Elementary 18th-19th Century Counterpoint
Exercises in Elementary Counterpoint - Introduction
Tones are connected in two different ways
Music is tone-lines
Chapter 1 - The Single Melodic Line
Rule 1, Rule 2
Exercise 1 - The Scale-Line and Narrow Leaps
Chapter 2 - Wider Leaps
Rule 3, Rule 4, Rule 5, Rule 6, Rule 7, Rule 8
Exercise 2 - Wider Leaps
Chapter 3 - Exceptional Progressions - Minor Mode
First, with reference to scale-step 7 (C major)
Second, with reference to scale-step 6
Third, with reference to scale-step 4
Rule 9
The Minor Mode
Rule 10
Exercise 3 - Exceptional Movements and The Minor Mode
Chapter 4 - The Combination of Two Melodic Lines
Rule 1, Rule 2, Rule 3
Inferior And Faulty Versions With The Same Given Melody
Exercise 4 - Two-Part Counterpoint with Fundamental Intervals, Major Mode
Chapter 5 - The Minor Mode
Given the following minor melody...
Exercise 5 - Two-Part Counterpoint with Fundamental Intervals, Minor Mode
Chapter 6 - Exceptional Intervals
Rule 4, Rule 5
Exercise 6 - Fundamental and Secondary Intervals; Major and Minor Modes
Chapter 7 - Rhythmic Diversity - Two Notes to a Given Beat
Rule 1, Rule 2, Rule 3, Rule 4, Rule 5, Rule 6, Rule 7, Rule 8
Exercise 7 - Two-Part Counterpoint, Two Notes to Each Beat
Chapter 8 - Modulations
Rule 1, Rule 2, Rule 3, Rule 4
Exercise 8 - Two-Part Counterpoint, with Changes of Key
Chapter 9 - Three Notes To A Beat
Exercise 9 - Three Notes to a Beat
Chapter 10 - Syncopation, Or Shifted Rhythm
Exercise 10 - Shifted Rhythm and Ties; Two and Three Notes to a Beat
Chapter 11 - The Tie, Continued, Rests
Rule 1, Rule 2, Rule 3, Rule 4
Exercise 11 - Ties and Rests; Two and Three Notes to a Beat
Chapter 12 - Four Notes To A Beat
Rule 1, Rule 2, Rule 3, Rule 4
Exercise 12 - Two-Part Counterpoint: Four Notes to a Beat
Chapter 13 - Four Notes To A Beat, As Amplified Forms
Exercise 13 - Four Notes to Each Beat
Chapter 14 - Diversity of Rhythmic Movement
Rule 1, Rule 2
Exercise 14 - Rhythmic Movement in Alternating Parts
Chapter 15 - Motive Development Imitation
Exercise 15 - Motive Development in Two-Part Counterpoint
Chapter 16 - Three-Part Harmony
Exercise 16 - Three Harmonic Parts, As Melodic Harmonization. Primary Chords.
Chapter 17 - Secondary Chords
Exercise 17 - Three Harmonic Parts. Primary and Secondary Chords. Sequences.
Chapter 18 - With Modulations
Exercise 18 - Modulations, and Altered Steps
Chapter 19 - Contrapuntal Harmony
Exercise 19 - Contrapuntal Three-Part Harmony
Chapter 20 - Three-Part Counterpoint
Exercise 20 - Three-Part Harmony
Chapter 21 - Motive Development
Exercise 21 - Motive Development, with Three Contrapuntal Parts
Chapter 22 - Four-Part Harmony
Exercise 22 - Four Harmonic Parts. Primary and Secondary Chords. Sequences
Chapter 23 - Modulations
Exercise 23 - Modulations
Chapter 24 - Contrapuntal Four-Part Harmony
Exercise 24 - Contrapuntal Four-Part Harmony
Chapter 25 - Four-Part Counterpoint
Exercise 25 - Analysis
Chapter 26 - Motive Development
Exercise 26 - Motive Development, with Four Contrapuntal Parts
212 pgs.