78048 - Elements of Harmony and Counterpoint

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course the student: develops faculties of intuition and intelligence of morphologies, relationships, and processes of tonality; knows how to create cognitive maps of what he/she is listening, or reading in the musical score and imagining; possesses an analytical, historical, stylistic knowledge of tonal phenomena in the evolution of Western musical thought.

Course contents

Organ Chorale Styles in J.S. Bach

Theory and practice of harmonic and syntactic analysis in reference to the organ chorale repertoire of J.S. Bach.

Readings/Bibliography

(1) Chapters 1-6, 9, 16, 17, 20 of: W. Piston, Harmony, Norton, New York 1987 (fifth ed.).

(2) Chapters XI (pp. 113-126), XVI (165-172), XVIII (185-191), XX (210-225), XXI (226-239), XXII (240-256), XXIII (257-286) of: L. Ratner, Harmony. Structure and style, Mc Graw-Hill, New York 1962.

(3) M. Mastropasqua, Il dinamismo armonico e il suo stadio di sviluppo in J. S. Bach [available at the Dipartimento delle Arti library]

(4) Entries from the Harvard Dictionary of Music: "Choralbearbeitung", "Chorale", "Chorale Prelude", "Melody Chorale", "Organ Chorale", "Organ music".

For those wishing to deepen their knowledge of the repertoire under examination, the reading of R. Tusler, The Style of J. S. Bach's Chorale Preludes, Da Capo Press, New York 1968, is recommended.

Those who wish to practice further in four-part writing by means of harmonic schemes, can usefully take as models the progressions in the chapters IV to XV of: A. Schoenberg, Theory of Harmony, University of California Press, Berkeley-Los Angeles 1983.

Teaching methods

The first half of the course aims to understand, from the very beginning, the harmony and the four-parts writing compatible with Bach's Chorale style; the second will be devoted to applying these principles to the analysis of the repertoire in object.

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the teacher, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Assessment methods

The exam consists of a written test and an interview; the two parts will be assessed with one final mark.

1. Written test

Realization of a melody as free flourished counterpoint (fifth species) to a given part, of about 8 bars, assigned by the Commission on the day of the exam. The given part is provided with harmonic ciphers, which the counterpoint to be created must respect.

Maximum time allowed for the written test: 2 hours. Students may take the oral examination maximum on 3 exam dates following that of the written test - if passed.

2. Oral examination

(a) knowledge on the topics included in the bibliography;

(b) discussion on the analysis of harmony, syntax and form, previously realized by the student, of:

one (1) organ chorale choosen among this numbers of BWV* (651, 652, 655, 656, 663, 664, all from Leipziger Choräle; 678, 682, 689, from Klavierübung III);

or,

two (2) organ chorales choosen among two lists of this numbers of BWV (the first, from nn. 653, 654, 661, 662, 665 of the Leipziger Choräle, or n. 676 from Klavierübung III; the second, from nn. 657, 659, 660, 666 of the Leipziger Choräle, from nn. 670, 671, 684, 686 of Klavierübung, or from nn. 694, 695, 707 contained in Kirnberger collection);

or,

three (3) organ chorales choosen among this numbers of BWV (the first, from nn. 647, 650 of Schübler Chorales; the other two among nn. 618, 622, 626, 636, 637, 639 of the Orgelbüchlein).

__________

* BWV = Bach Werke Verzeichnis: catalogue of Bach's works.

 

In the analysis, carried out chord by chord, particular attention will be paid to the singularity of the individual harmonic successions, to the relationship between essential and inessential notes, and to that between the harmonic regions of the piece.

On the day of the exam, the student must dispose of a copy of the musical texts that he has analyzed. This copy will be free of any annotations or added marks.

Teaching tools

Students who wish to take this exam but, in a degree courses or of any sort, have already taken a similar exam (covering topics such as harmony, counterpoint, and so on), they shall contact the teacher.

Of course, to sit the examination, students are required to read music fluently, at least in the two main clefs. Those who wish to begin, may be helped by the following ideal path (the texts are not part of the exam bibliography). (1) Students are required to study "Grammatica della musica" (pp. 1083-1095) from the Enciclopedia della musica Garzanti (Torino 1996), or Otto Karolyi, La grammatica della musica. La teoria, le forme e gli strumenti musicali, a cura di G. Pestelli, Einaudi, Torino 1972. (2) Students are required to practice the intonation of intervals and of tonal melodies of any kind. (3) Students are required to make the exercises of intonation proposed in Paul Hindemith, Teoria musicale e solfeggio, Suvini Zerboni, Milano 1984.

Office hours

See the website of Mauro Mastropasqua