Contemporary Harmony

Informatie

The understanding of the musical techniques of composition cannot be reduced to a handbook of simplified rules. Music is complex and ever changing. It is the purpose of this book to trace the path of musical growth from the late Romantic period to the serial techniques of the contemporary composer. Through the detailed analysis of the musical characteristics that dominate a specific style of writing, a graduated plan is organized and presented here in the form of explanations and exercises. A new analytical method substitutes for the diatonic figured bass and makes exercises and the analysis of non-diatonic literature more manageable. The explanations describing each technique are thorough. They are designed to help the teacher and the student see the many extenuating circumstances that affect a particular analytical decision. More important than a dogmatic decision on a particular key center or a root tone, for example, is the understanding of why such an underdeterminate condition may exist.

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1. Part I: Musical influences present in 1900
2. Chapter 1: Rhythmic and melodic structure
3. Chapter 2: Intervallic unity
4. Chapter 3: Harmonic growth
5. Chapter 4: Details concerning the ninth chord
6. Chapter 5: Eleventh and thirteenth chords
7. Chapter 6: Leading-tone chord
8. Chapter 7: Modern application
9. Part II: Impressionism
10. Chapter 8: Modal influence
11. Chapter 9: Influence of modes on harmony
12. Chapter 10: Unrestricted melodic movement of all chord members
13. Chapter 11: The tritone, the whole-tone scale, and whole-tone dominants
14. Part III: The Rise of Modern Dissonance
15. Chapter 12: Free counterpoint and the twelve-tone scale
16. Chapter 13: Bichordal writing and polytonality
17. Part IV: Contrapuntal Writing
18. Chapter 14: Linear Roots
19. Chapter 15: Two-part writing
20. Chapter 16: Intervallic structures in the writing of three or more parts
21. Part V: Intervallic Structures in Homophonic Textures
22. Chapter 17: Fourth chords and perfect fifths
23. Chapter 18: Intervallic structures emanating from bass intervals of sixths, thirds, sevenths, and seconds
24. Chapter 19: The control of dissonance
25. Part VI: The Twelve-Tone Row
26. Chapter 20: Its strict application
27. Chapter 21: Atonality
28. Chapter 22: A summary of procedures for contemporary Analysis
29. Acknowledgments
30. Index of Musical examples