Product Description

A comprehensive volume spanning the entire theory course, HARMONY AND VOICE LEADING begins with coverage of basic concepts of theory and harmony, and moves into coverage of advanced dissonance and chromaticism. It emphasizes the linear aspects of music as much as the harmonic, and introduces large-scale progressions--linear and harmonic--at an early stage. The first three Units of the book are designed to be taught sequentially, but instructors have the flexibility to teach the latter units in any combination and order they choose.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #146889 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-13
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 672 pages

Review
"The Exercises are first rate."

"The Exercises are also extremely good. In many chapters there are more lengthy exercises than most instructors could possibly use, but it’s nice to be able to choose the ones one likes best."

"I consider HARMONY AND VOICE LEADING to be without question the preeminent harmony book on the market today. ... It offers instruction on a high musical and intellectual level that does not condescend to students, but rather encourages growth in the subject that is both rapid and profound."

"(I use HARMONY AND VOICE LEADING because of) ... the marvelous organization of the material; the authors’ impressive mastery of the material; the musicianly quality of the presentation, which conveys the necessary information very effectively...but never mechanically; the high quality of the exercises and excerpts for analysis, which are thought-provoking for the teacher as well as the student; and the extremely well-chosen musical examples."

"The concepts are approached from a musical standpoint as I mentioned earlier. In addition, the coverage is incredibly thorough and logically presented. My personal favorite is that the homework exercises are largely compositional in nature, as opposed to ’fill in the blank’ harmonic exercises. I believe that through composition and melody harmonization students best learn harmony and voice leading principles. Most importantly, through composition, students will make the transition to counterpoint studies more easily."

About the Author
Edward Aldwell received his bachelor's and master's degrees from The Juilliard School where he studied piano with Adele Marcus. He studied theory and analysis privately with Carl Schachter and later with Ernst Oster. He has been a member of the Techniques of Music department at Mannes since 1969 and a member of the piano department since 1973. He has taught theory at The Curtis Institute of Music since 1971 and is currently Chairperson of the theory department. He has given recitals and master classes throughout the United States as well as in Israel, England and Germany, many of them devoted to the works of Bach. Recordings include both books of THE WELL-TEMPERED CLAVIER, GOLDBERG VARIATIONS and FRENCH SUITES OF BACH, as well as works of Hindemith and Fauré. Carl Schachter has taught music theory and analysis at Mannes College since 1956. He has served as the Chair of the Techniques of Music Division, and he was Dean of the College from 1962 to 1966. In July 1996 he retired as Distinguished Professor of Music at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate School, where he had taught since 1971. Following his retirement from Queens College, he joined the faculty of The Juilliard School. He has lectured and taught in France, England, Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, Finland, Estonia, Holland, Mexico, and Australia as well as the U.S. and Canada.

Customer Reviews

Keyboard Progressions
I agree with the positive comments in the reviews but no one has mentioned the feature of the book that I like the best...the table of keyboard progressions in the back of the book. The progressions increase in difficulty and they illustrate perfectly the concepts presented in the text. I am finding the best way to proceed is to play them, and once you have started getting them into your ears and fingers, analyze the details of their voice leading and turn back to the text for a theoretical explanation.

Solid common practice period theory text
I've yet to find an alternative to the Roger Sessions, HARMONIC PRACTICE, which I believe to be the best theory text ever written. However, the teaching of theory has changed over the past forty years since my first "date" with Sessions and his text... and students have changed as well. Hence, I find Messrs Schachter & Aldwell have done a commendable job (a nearly impossible job, I think) in writing this new, single volume edition. Whilst I never expect to find the perfect text, this one will do nicely.

The text clearly cannot stand apart from a good theory teacher. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), a credible do-it-yourself theory text has yet to be written.

Important text, but not for beginners
One thing to understand about this book - it was not written with amazon.com beginners in mind. It is a college-level theory textbook, and is probably one of the few books that present basic theory concepts in a coherent, unified fashion. The "restrictions" some reviewers complain about, are actually part of a time-honored approach to teaching theory (think "species counterpoint"). To understand the book, a teacher needs to understand something of the ideas and approach of Heinrich Schenker (Schachter was one of Schenker's students). Unlike many theory books, which are into quick summaries and labels, this book is based on a deep understanding of how western tonal music works (at least from the Schenkerian perspective). Even basic concepts like scale degrees, intervals, and triads, are presented in such a way that important relationships among tones become evident. Chords are not merely chunks of notes that deserve a label, but are part of a larger, contrapuntal whole. Sticking with the early chapters, and especially getting a good grasp of the contrapuntal nature of even the most basic chords (insights gained into the similar "passing chord" functions of the V4/3 and viio6 chords, for example) are well worth the effort. Upon successful completion of the first 10 or 11 chapters, a student should have a new understanding of how tonal music works.