Modal Counterpoint, Renaissance Style

An exceptional text for undergraduate and graduate music students,__Modal Counterpoint, Renaissance Style__uses a wide variety of carefully graded exercises to present guidelines for writing and analyzing 16th-century music. The only species counterpoint text that draws directly on Renaissance treatises, it provides a conceptual framework to guide students through composition and analysis as it teaches them general structural principles. With stylistically diverse examples including not only motets and mass movements but also French chansons, German chorale settings, English canzonets, Italian madrigals, and Spanish organ hymns, villancicos, and ricercars, the book gives students a "real-life" feel for the subject. It distinguishes between technical requirements ("hard" rules) and stylistic guidelines ("soft" rules), and includes coordinated exercises that allow students to develop their skills systematically. The concluding chapters provide the formal and conceptual building blocks for longer pieces and encourage students to understand analysis and composition as complementary activities. By the end of the book, students are writing real compositions, not just drill exercises. The text also features progressively graded exercises, historical asides that explain important topics and issues of the period, and some notes in the preface on using the book in the classroom. Combining the historical accuracy of "style-oriented" texts with the more systematic species counterpoint approach, this book offers a unique alternative to other methods.Now in its second edition,__Modal Counterpoint, Renaissance Style__integrates improvisation activities and new repertoire examples into many chapters; revises the chapter on three-part writing (Chapter 14) so that it pays more attention to rules and strategies; reworks the chapters on cadences (Chapter 10) and on writing two parts in mixed values (Chapter 11) to make them more accessible to students; incorporates clarified instructions throughout; and includes a summary of rules. An exceptional text for undergraduate and graduate music students, Modal Counterpoint, Renaissance Style uses a wide variety of carefully graded exercises to present guidelines for writing and analyzing 16th-century music. The only species counterpoint text that draws directly on Renaissance treatises, it provides a conceptual framework to guide students through composition and analysis as it teaches them general structural principles. With stylistically diverse examples including not only motets and mass movements but also French chansons, German chorale settings, English canzonets, Italian madrigals, and Spanish organ hymns, villancicos, and ricercars, the book gives students a "real-life" feel for the subject. It distinguishes between technical requirements ("hard" rules) and stylistic guidelines ("soft" rules), and includes coordinated exercises that allow students to develop their skills systematically. The concluding chapters provide the formal and conceptual building blocks for longer pieces and encourage students to understand analysis and composition as complementary activities. By the end of the book, students are writing real compositions, not just drill exercises. The text also features progressively graded exercises, historical asides that explain important topics and issues of the period, and some notes in the preface on using the book in the classroom. Combining the historical accuracy of "style-oriented" texts with the more systematic species counterpoint approach, this book offers a unique alternative to other methods. Now in its second edition, Modal Counterpoint, Renaissance Style integrates improvisation activities and new repertoire examples into many chapters; revises the chapter on three-part writing (Chapter 14) so that it pays more attention to rules and strategies; reworks the chapters on cadences (Chapter 10) and on writing two parts in mixed values (Chapter 11) to make them more accessible to students; incorporates clarified instructions throughout; and includes a summary of rules. Contents 7 Preface 9 Note to the Student 13 Note to the Instructor 17 Introduction: Renaissance Musical Style and Notation 21 1. Mode 29 2. Introduction to Two-Part Species Counterpoint 38 3. First Species 46 4. Second Species 64 5. Third Species 78 6. Fourth Species 96 7. Mixed Values 107 8. Counterpoint with Repetition of a Motive 125 9. Motivic Variation 137 10. Cadence Formulas in Two Voices 156 11. Two Parts in Mixed Values 164 12. The Imitative Duo 181 13. Invertible Counterpoint 197 14. Three Parts 209 15. Three Parts in Mixed Values 230 16. The Three-Voice Invertible Canon 247 17. Four-Part Writing 263 18. Adding Three Parts in Mixed Values to a CF 281 19. Four Parts in Mixed Values 293 20. Composing a Whole Piece 324 Appendix 1: Text Setting 335 Appendix 2: Canon Against a CF 339 Appendix 3: Solmization 354 Appendix 4: Sample Motive Placements 358 Appendix 5: The Invertible Duo 359 Bibliography 362 Index 365