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 the subject of the text. With stylistically various examples, 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 further study. 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 the book in the classroom. This book offers a unique alternative to other methods.
Now in its second edition, Modal Counterpoint, The Renaissance Style integrates improvisation activities and new repertoire examples in many chapters-revises the chapter on three-part writing (Chapter 14) so \u200b\u200bthat it pays more attention to rules and strategies- reworks the chapters on cadences (Chapter 10) to make them more accessible to students- incorporates clarified instructions throughout- and includes a summary of rules.