Introduction. Why Study Counterpoint?

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1 PART I Strict Style 1 Introduction Why Study Counterpoint? What Is This Book? Who Can Use This Book? Step-by-Step; Learning by Modeling; Mainstream Composers; Keeping a Commonplace Book Copying and Memorizing Music; The Sound of Baroque Music; Why Vocal Music? Recipe for Success; Notes on Baroque Harmony; Different Road Maps through the Book Why Study Counterpoint? Example 1.1 (Mattheson) You have no doubt heard many works of Handel, Vivaldi, and Bach. Their music is played all across the world in concert halls, movie theaters, living rooms, and fast-food chains. These works have given many people the most profound musical experiences of their lives, and they remain cultural landmarks. Baroque fugues especially amaze and fascinate us. As Alfred Mann puts it, The term fugue... suggests... the most intricate expression of the complex language of Western music. 1 As musicians, we are fortunate to be able to play and study this music and once we have studied it, we not only admire it but we begin to understand why it is so powerful. Counterpoint is a well-defined discipline with a long tradition that is central to the study of all music. By studying it, we not only reenact the activities of Baroque musicians (especially church organists, who had to be able to improvise chorale preludes and fugues), but also of later composers. The works of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Schoenberg, Webern, and Hindemith would not be what they are without a solid grounding in Baroque counterpoint. It is even important to present-day movie composers, like Jerry Goldsmith, who wrote the score for the movie Patton. For that score, he said he composed three themes, each representing a facet of General Patton s character (warrior, religious man, intellectual), and added,... it was designed contrapuntally so that all three could be played simultaneously, or individually, or two at a time, whatever. 2 His remark shows how counterpoint stresses independence of melodic parts, which is quite different from the concept of melody and accompaniment. The great eighteenthcentury German theorist Johann Mattheson (who helped us write this book) gives a good illustration of the difference. For each of two phrases of a little gigue, Mattheson provides two different basses. The basses in Examples 1.1a and 1.1b supply harmonic accompaniment; those in Examples 1.1c and 1.1d provide harmonic support too, but, in addition, imitate. It is the imitation, says Mattheson, without which everything would sound wooden. 3 The two versions have almost the same chord progression, but solutions c and d are more contrapuntal. a. 1

2 2 Introduction b. c. d. Studying counterpoint is broadly useful because it teaches us to think in music. The activity of writing counterpoint starts from a given problem to which one is to find an appropriate solution. Eventually, you develop an instinct for spotting the musical potential of an idea because of your experience with a wide range of musical situations. 4 Knowing how to write or improvise counterpoint (even if you do not plan to be a composer or improviser yourself) means understanding how music works. Such knowledge is invaluable to performers in an ensemble or orchestra, who need a better understanding of their role in the texture; to conductors, who need to understand how to bring out this or that melodic part; to musicologists, who need to get into the composer s mind when studying sketches or analyzing pieces; and to theorists, for whom the rigorous mental exercise is fun in its own right. What Is This Book? This book teaches Baroque compositional technique through writing exercises and analysis of repertoire examples. Because compositional technique is fundamental to style, the book teaches appreciation of Baroque style from the inside out. It is based largely on principles taught in the period from as found in treatises, and thus provides the student with a historical outlook. The most important difference between this book and all the other ones we have looked at is its emphasis on the harmonic progression as the basis for contrapuntal study. Other books begin with two-part writing, which we have always found to be too difficult for the beginner. The book focuses primarily on fugue, although it treats also chorale preludes, stylized dances, inventions, and trio sonatas. We have tried to get to the bottom of many issues

3 Introduction 3 involved in fugue, and so the reader will find many exhaustive lists. For instance, there are twenty-four ways to order the four entries, nine ways to skip to or from dissonances in free style, six ways to achieve variety in a monothematic fugue, five ways to deal with illegal 6/4 chords in permutation fugue, and three types of double fugue and we try to explain the consequences of each possibility. The book is divided into two parts, basic and advanced, but the student and teacher have various options to introduce material from Part II into the first term, as discussed below in Different Road Maps through the Book. Who Can Use This Book? You need to know first-semester harmony: scales, intervals, keys, figured bass, voiceleading in four parts, chorale harmonization, and something about nonharmonic tones and diminished-seventh chords. Musical examples involving continuo are presented without any keyboard realization, so a familiarity with figured bass is important and some keyboard skills are necessary. Life will be a bit easier if you have studied modal counterpoint, because you will be in the habit of seeing how lines fit together, but this is not essential. NOTE: You will need to obtain a copy of Bach s Well-Tempered Clavier (WTC), Books I and II, as we refer to its fugues often throughout this book. Step-by-Step There are more examples and more finely graded exercises in this book than you and your teacher are likely to use. Each exercise is labeled by type; thus, there are analytical questions, terminology questions, short writing exercises, and longer composition exercises. We believe that a great deal can be accomplished in a very short exercise done in class. The idea is to quickly master a simple exercise that trains you for the next one, or for a longer or more complex version of the same. Instant success is our motto! Learning by Modeling Many of the exercises we propose will consist of material taken from treatises or repertoire, and the student is to add complementary material. Mattheson believes that the best way to learn to compose is to model on good composers. He says, One cannot advise a beginner better than to say that he first do an exercise by trying to compose a bass to an upper voice already made by someone else.... It goes without saying that whoever wants to take pleasure and profit from this exercise must hide from his eyes the basses of the master and not see a note of it until he has tried his luck himself.... The comparison of the new bass with the old will soon show where it is wrong, where it is good, and also where it could have been better. 5 He also suggests taking a bass and composing a new upper line: One hereby proceeds as before, namely, by means of choosing one or another piece already written by a competent master and keeping the upper voice secret until one can compare the melody invented over the bass alone with the original. The best opportunity can be found in

4 4 Introduction extended sections of church pieces Of three-part pieces, he suggests leaving out one or two voices and composing the remainder. Here he says that if the student is given the first upper part and the words,... one can even invent the second voice and the bass. The teacher has to give a little assistance and help. The less such takes place, the sharper the student s reflection becomes. 7 Now who are his competent masters? When it comes to three-part music, Mattheson lists, among others, Marcello, Corelli, Fux, Handel, and Krieger. We quote them and we also look at music by Arne, J. C. F. Bach, J. S. Bach, Buxtehude, Caldara, Campra, Fischer, Graun, Leonarda, Kuhnau, Loeillet, Pachelbel, Pergolesi, Steffani, Telemann, Vallotti, Walther, Zachau, Zelenka, and others. Just as Bach tinkered with fugues by Reincken and Fischer, we will use contemporaneous materials as the basis for our exercises. Mainstream Composers We have included such a wide range of composers in Part I to give a picture of mainstream Baroque music in Bach s time. Some of these are fairly minor composers, but it is important to know what the run-of-the-mill is in a given period before approaching the truly great. We all want to study the Well-Tempered Clavier, but the models it provides are too complex for the beginner. Art critic Peter Schjeldahl put it nicely. Reviewing an exhibit at the Guggenheim that recreated the Salon Exhibition of 1900 in which several Impressionist masters were shown for the first time, along with lesser contemporaries, he wrote,... [G]ems by Cezanne, Degas, Munch, Klimt, and other heroes of modernity [at first] seemed... tormented by the context, like aristocrats at a tractor pull.... But such contrast is valuable, he says, because a cultivated appreciation of the pretty good sets us up to register the surprise of the great, which baffles our understanding and teaches us little except how to praise. 8 By studying lesser masters, the pretty good, you may actually be able to name the features that make Bach great, not just be awed. Keeping a Commonplace Book Copying and Memorizing Music You should follow Mattheson s advice, writing down in a little notebook (called a commonplace book) short turns of phrase from Baroque pieces that you are exceptionally fond of or find exceptionally bad. You are allowed to steal these as long as you change the context in which they occur. This process is discussed in more detail in Chapter 17, which you might want to consult right away, to get a sense of different ways to approach writing music in the Baroque. Copying out entire pieces was often done in the eighteenth century, and it s still a very good way to get to know music. When we say know music we mean not just getting the general idea, but really knowing every detail about a melody, how it feels by itself, how it feels in context, and so on. In many exercises, you have to copy out the given material and then add your own counterpoint, as they did in the eighteenth century. The purpose of this is, ultimately, that you will have a lot of little melodic and harmonic ideas that you can draw upon when you have to come up with something.

5 Introduction 5 The Sound of Baroque Music Baroque music is usually recognizable right off the bat. In fact, we can often identify it independently of the genre or the instrumentation that is, if you slice out a few measures from the middle of a piece by Vivaldi or Telemann, you may not be able to say whether it s a fugue, a concerto, or the ritornello of an aria, but you can be quite sure it s Baroque. This is because early eighteenth-century music is very well behaved, like the people who made it and listened to it. Think of powdered wigs and lace once a movement gets started, there are almost never any sudden outbursts, or changes of speed or character (except for rare special effects). You should become familiar with this sound, whatever kind of piece you are writing, and try to imitate it. Why Vocal Music? We believe the student should be able to sing anything he or she writes, and we strongly suggest that students sing and play all their compositions and exercises. This helps control range, crossing voices, skippiness, and rhythm. Mattheson says that vocal music is the most basic type, and a good training for writing instrumental music. 9 He says writing vocal music helps the beginner learn where to place cadences, and to emphasize melody over harmony. He says that instrumental melody has more fire and freedom, more leaps, a wider range, a more impulsive, punctuated nature, and more regular phrase structure than vocal melody, 10 but that it s dangerous for beginners: Through the great freedom in writing for instruments one is led to all kinds of shapeless melody Recipe for Success If music is like food, composing is like cooking. You must always taste what you are doing. We encourage you to sing and play as much as you can everything you write or analyze and not to use the computer to write something and then find out how it sounds by having it played back through MIDI. It s better to struggle through slowly. Later on you can be like the Italian tailors, who measure so carefully they never need to have the customer try on the clothes you ll know how your music sounds! Notes on Baroque Harmony Traditional harmony teaching is more applicable to late eighteenth-century music in melody-and-accompaniment texture than to the music we are studying here. You may have been told never to use ii after V unless it returns to V (thus embellishing V), or not to use iii 6 and vi 6. While these are useful guidelines for Classical music, we have found that they are a bit too restrictive for Baroque music. You should model on examples in this book, which illustrate what a big world it is. For instance, in Baroque music, six-four chords are used more freely than in Classical style; likewise, cadences don t have the

6 6 Introduction same structural importance; and diminished triads in root position may be used, even outside of sequences. Different Road Maps through the Book This book is divided into two parts: Part I: Basic level. In the first thirteen chapters we stick to strict style, whose most important feature is the absence of accented passing tones. The melodies are mostly vocal, with clear harmonic progressions. Subjects start only on the first or fifth scale degree, and there is, at most, one tonal alteration ( splice ) per thematic statement. Modulations are restricted to near keys, and invertible counterpoint is only done at the octave. A glance at the examples in Chapters 12 and 13 should convince anyone that strict style is no barrier to great music. Part II: Advanced level. Here the melodic style is more instrumental, and dissonance is used more freely. Subjects start on different scale degrees and can have more splices. Harmonic progressions can be less clear, and chromaticism and modulation to distant keys are used. Invertible counterpoint at the twelfth and tenth are used, with other intervals of inversion optional. Students compose their own subjects. The best way to use this book is to work through the chapters in the order in which they appear. The first thirteen chapters can be completed in one semester, ending with a final project consisting of a chorale prelude, fugue, trio sonata, or invention, as described in Chapter 13. The remainder of the book can be covered in another semester. However, we recognize that some teachers will want to spend more time in some areas and skip others. For instance, simple harmonization (Chapter 3) and melodic embellishments (Chapter 4) may be review for many students, and may be covered quickly or skipped. Likewise, Chapter 11 is included in Part I to round out the picture of thematic presentations, but the various kinds of double fugue studied there may seem too complex for the beginner, and thus this chapter may be skipped (on the other hand, this chapter contains the first complete pieces). Long exercises in chorale prelude, trio sonata, and invention can be skipped to make more time for study of fugue. The time gained by moving quickly through the beginning of the book will permit the class to skip ahead to the second part of the book, integrating flashy techniques (pedal, stretto, augmentation, diminution, melodic inversion and mirror inversion) that may be used in strict style. Here are some suggestions: 1. The final projects suggested at the end of Part I could include writing a stretto. Skip to Chapter 18 to learn about this technique. 2. You may also want to use pedal and mirror inversion at the end of Part I. Go to Chapter You may want to be able to write your own subject by the end of Part I. Go to Chapter 17 after Chapter You may want to come up with your own formal layout for the final projects in Part I. Go to Chapter 20 for more details about fugal forms. Your teacher may want to assign musical examples other than those in the book for analysis. Mostly we have specified the relative length of our exercises, but the teacher should try out any exercise before assigning it to the class, in order to see if it contains more time-consuming problems.

7 Introduction 7 Notes 1. Mann, [1965] 1987, p. ix. 2. Interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, January 7, 2002, on WHYY FM. 3. Mattheson, [1739] 1987, III, 16, See the little story about J. S. Bach in Chapter Mattheson, [1739] 1987, III, 16, 3, 7, and Ibid., 16, Ibid., 17, Review of 1900: Art at the Crossroads, The New Yorker, August 7, 2000: the former, so to speak, is the mother, but the latter is the daughter.... For as a mother must necessarily be older than her natural daughter, vocal melody doubtlessly existed in this lower world before instrumental music. The former thus not only has the rank and priority but also requires the daughter to adjust to her motherly direction to make everything beautifully singable and fluent so that one may hear whose child she is ([1739] 1987, II, 12, 4). Mattheson asks, Does not everybody first reach for all kinds of instrumental pieces, sonatas, overtures etc. before he knows how to sing and notate a single chorale correctly, let alone artistically ([1739] 1987, II, 12, 6)? 10. Mattheson, [1739] 1987, II, 12, Ibid., 9.