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The full range of Western music is explored through 21 concise chapters on such topics as melody, harmony, counterpoint, texture, melody types, improvisation, music notation, free imitation, canon and fugue, vibration and its relation to harmony, tonality, and the place of music in architecture and astronomy. 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.
List of contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Melody is Pure but Not So Simple
Chapter 2: Harmony, Unlike Melody, is Pure Only in Theory
Chapter 3: Our Usual Musical Menu is Melody with Subsidiary Accompaniment
Chapter 4: Counterpoint is a Harmonious Marriage of Independent Melodies
Chapter 5: Texture
Chapter 6: Special Mixtures of Texture
Chapter 7: East is East is Melody; West is West is Harmony
Chapter 8: The Universal Patterns of Melody: Melody Types
Chapter 9: Of the Earth, Earthy: Folk Music and its Role in Composition
Chapter 10: Improvisation Forever
Chapter 11: The Big Difference: Music Notation
Chapter 12: Canon, Free Imitation, Fugue: A Path to Musical Meaning
Chapter 13: Free Imitation: Canon with a Grain of Salt
Chapter 14: Fugue: The Whole Contrapuntal Bag of Tricks
Chapter 15: Harmony, the Governing Principle
Chapter 16: Music in Architecture
Chapter 17: Music in Astronomy
Chapter 18: Vibration, the New Paradigm
Chapter 19: The Harmonic Series
Chapter 20: Mapping the New Tonal Territory
Chapter 21: Tonality is Still Here
Notes
Suggest Further Reading
About the Author
About the author
E. Eugene Helm is professor emeritus in the school of music, University of Maryland, College Park. He is founder of its ethnomusicology program and co-founder and coordinating editor of The Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Edition. He is author of various other works on C.P.E. Bach.
