Harmony Through Melody

Harmony Through Melody:The Interaction of Melody, Counterpoint, and Harmony in Western Music, Second Edition offers 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.

This workbook is designed to accompany the text Harmony Through Melody. The graded assignments in writing and analysis for each chapter include formatted music manuscript as tear-out sheets. For this reason, many assignments continue on the reverse page and in some cases onto a third and fourth page. Sufficient exercises are given to provide for in-class analysis and lab activity as well as written assignments. The numbers in parentheses following each assignment in the four chapters on rudiments are suggested possible marks; for convenience in marking, assignments may be combined for a total of 100 possible marks. Additional music manuscript pages are provided here and there throughout the workbook for use in class and in drafting assignments.

A basic two year course book of 176 pages, it provides a comprehensive coverage of the work necessary to prepare for GCSE examinations. Essentially a practically based rather than an academic course, each chapter of Harmony, Melody and Composition reveals music from two sides at once: harmony and melody. All principles and examples are drawn directly from musical literature. At every stage the student is called upon to examine and think about the technical processes as they occur in a wide range of music. There are work pages related to each chapter and these contain assignments in analysis, writing, singing and playing. Harmony, Melody and Composition provides a systematic study beginning with basic principles.

Written by Horton (music, University of Manitoba) and Ritchey (music, St. John's College), this text is designed for a two-year under- graduate music theory sequence in diatonic and chromatic harmony. It presents the common systems of tonal organization in Western music, focusing on general tendencies across style and period boundaries. Techniques and strategies for understanding music are presented and developed through writing exercises and analysis; and some 1,400 musical examples are included, among them, selections from folk songs, popular music, hymns, and the standard repertoire. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

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? 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.

A masterful and original classical composer as well as a renowned composer of film scores, Ernst Toch (1887 1964) made a permanent contribution to music in this important and widely praised book. Based on a series of lectures given at Harvard in 1944 and first published in 1948, this book is a brilliant examination of the materials and concepts that are the basic building blocks of music harmony, melody, counterpoint, and form. An admirable reconciliation of traditional and modern (mainly 12-tone) trends in composition, this book shows all types of writing must respond to psychological wants of the listener and how similar goals may be achieved in seemingly opposed styles. Illustrating his discussion with 390 musical examples, Toch not only introduces new ideas and approaches, but examines many age-old problems with clarity and precision consonance and dissonance, form versus number, and more. His analysis of the expanding harmonic universe, the wave line of melody, and the formative influence of movement are particularly penetrating. New to this edition are a biological introduction by Toch's grandson, Lawrence Weschler; a previously unpublished letter from Thomas Mann to Toch about this book (in English translation); and a complete checklist of Toch's compositions. Intended for all those who have a minimum understanding of musical notation and theory, this book will appeal to music lovers, practical musicians and amateurs, and incipient composers."