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, they are writing real compositions, not just drill exercises. Modal Counterpoint, Renaissance Style features carefully chosen contemporaneous musical examples, progressively graded exercises, historical asides that explain important topics and issues of the period, and a set of notes to the instructor. Combining the historical accuracy of "style-oriented" texts with the more systematic species counterpoint approach, this book offers a unique alternative to other methods. Modal Counterpoint, Renaissance Style Introduces The Rules For Writing And Analysing 16th-century Music Through A Wide Variety Of Carefully Graded Exercises. It Begins With Species Counterpoint -- The Method Used To Teach Voice-leading And The Treatment Of Consonances And Dissonances In Contrapuntal Composition -- With Exercises Modelled On Examples From Among 1600. Unlike Other Books That Bear Little Stylistic Relation To The Music Of The Period, This Is The Only Text Available That Uses Examples And Concepts Based On Renaissance Treatises And Contemporaneous Theoretical Sources. This Book Provides A Conceptual Framework That Guides The Students' Writing And Analysis And That Teaches Students The General Principles Of Composition. The Author's Selection Of Renaissance Repertoire Examples Illustrates The Range Of Possibilities Within A Given Technical Formula. The Concluding Chapters Provide Conceptual Tools And Formal Schemes For Building Longer Pieces, Encouraging Students To See Analysis And Composition As Complementary Activities. By The End Of The Book Students Are Writing Real Compositions, Not Just Drill Exercises. Adapted From Eight Years Of Class Testing, This Textbook Includes Many Helpful Tools For Students And Teachers, Including Carefully Chosen Musical Examples, Different Levels Of Student Exercises With Exercise Blanks, Historial Asides Explaining Interesting And Relevant Issues Of The Period, A Glossary Of Terms, Brief Information On Theorists Whose Work Was Examined To Make This Text, And Brief Notes To The Teacher. This Book Uniquely Combines The Stylistic Accuracy Of The Style-oriented Texts With More Systematic Species Counterpoint Approach, Favoured By Many As A Pedagogical Method. Note To The Student -- Note To The Instructor -- Introduction: Renaissance Musical Style And Notation -- 1. Mode -- 2. Introduction To Two-part Species Counterpoint -- 3. First Species -- 4. Second Species -- 5. Third Species -- 6. Fourth Species -- 7. Mixed Values -- 8. Counterpoint With Repetition Of A Motive -- 9. Motivic Variation -- 10. Cadence Formulas In Two Voices -- 11. Two Parts In Mixed Values -- 12. The Imitative Duo -- 13. Invertible Counterpoint -- 14. Three Parts -- 15. Three Parts In Mixed Values -- 16. The Three-voice Invertible Canon -- 17. Four-part Writing -- 18. Adding Three Parts In Mixed Values To A Cf -- 19. Four Parts In Mixed Values -- 20. Composing A Whole Piece -- Appendices -- 1. Text Setting -- 2. Improvisation And Ornamentation -- 3. Solmization -- 4. Sample Motive Placements -- 5. The Invertible Duo. Peter Schubert. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 321-322) And Index. Modal Counterpoint, Renaissance Style introduces the rules of writing and analyzing sixteenth-century music through a wide variety of carefully graded exercises. It is the only species counterpoint book that uses examples and concepts taken directly from sixteenth-century treatises and contemporaneous theoretical sources. The author's selection of Renaissance repertoire examples comprises many genres and styles, including French chansons, German chorale settings, English canzonets, Italian madrigals, and Spanish organ hymns, villancicos, and ricercars. The book provides a clear progression of exercises, from simple to complex, enabling readers to develop skills systematically. By the end of the book readers are writing real compositions, not just drill exercises.