Customer Reviews

Harmonic Materials in Tonal Music: A Programed Course, Part 1 (Harmonic Materials in Tonal Music)

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Paul Harder has created the best book on music theory I have ever had the privelege to use. His systematic course will take the reader from basic chordal theory to Voice leading, and beyond. I have been searching for just such a book for almost twenty years. My composition instructor and I have used this book to teach me the proper "rules" one needs to create tonal compositions of any scale. This book allows one to find their weaknesses and their strengths through it's well thought out structure, and the answers set in to the margins. By covering the answers with a sheet of paper and doing the excercises, then removing the paper to check his/her results the student can immediately identify his/her weaknesses and strengths. Supplemental and mastery excercises help the student achieve the level of knowledge necesary for the creation of their own masterpieces. Long standing as a mainstay of instruction for Harmony, Dr Steinke, through his thoughtful revisions, has assured that "Harmonic Material in Tonal Music, A Programmed Course part 1" will continue to teach many more up and coming composers.

FOR SOME STRANGE REASON, AMAZON HAS THE REVIEWS FOR PARTS 1 & 2 LINKED.

I first used this book as a freshman music major at Michigan State University in 1972 and had its original author, Paul O. Harder as the lecture professor. He was a wonderful man, a fine teacher, and this text helped me get familiar with the rudiments and basic language of musical and harmonic grammar.

The way the text works is you turn to a page, cover up the column of answers, read the question and answer the question, fill in the blank, label the chords, or whatever is asked of you. You then slide down the cover and immediately see whether you were correct or wrong in your answer. The idea is that when you take very small incremental steps in such an interactive way the material becomes ingrained as you use the material as part of subsequent learning. I think it works. However, with this book you do not get a sustained treatise on musical harmony. It is a simple nuts-and-bolts method to teach you the grammar of common practice harmony and it pulls that off pretty well.

No, it doesn't deal with voice-leading in the Schenkerian or contrapuntal sense, however you do get the basics of 4 part chorale writing. But the book was never intended to be a book on voice-leading or counterpoint.

PART 1 starts with some basic definitions about music grammar, the structure of tonality, triads in root position, voice-leading triads (avoiding parallel 5ths, etc - chorale writing), triads in first and second inversion, seventh chords, phrase structure and cadences, non-harmonic tones, harmonic progression, and concludes with the technique of harmonization. All pretty basic stuff. So, if you can read music in both the treble and bass clefs, have a basic idea of what the key signatures mean, and some clue about how music notation works, you can use this book to teach yourself harmonic grammar to the point of understanding basic 4 voice chorales. Which is a pretty helpful thing to know.

PART 2 covers seventh chords and the function of the dominant seventh, non-dominant seventh chords, altered (inflected) nonharmonic tones & secondary dominants, modulation to closely related keys (yes, I know that Schenkerians become dyspeptic at this notion), borrowed chords, augmented sixth chords, the Neapolitan Sixth, altered dominants, and diminished seventh chords, chromatic third-relation harmony, modulation to foreign keys, and chords with ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths.

Each chapter ends with some mastery frames to prove that you understood what was being taught, some supplementary assignments if you want a bit more than the chapter provided, and there are four appendices. They are on chord symbols, piano styles (figurations to support melodies), Glossary of terms (very handy), orchestra chart (ranges and transpositions). There is also a bibliography for further study, and index of musical examples used in the text, a subject index, and a note about Harder and another about Steinke.

I think Steinke has done a fine job in improving the text and yet retaining its central strengths and purpose.

A solid and useful preparatory text and I recommend it for the beginning musician or anyone trying to get their hands around basic harmony and wants to learn it in a quick and practical way.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Depending on which item you are viewing and need the other - go to:

Part 1
Harmonic Materials in Tonal Music: A Programed Course, Part I (9th Edition)

Part 2
Harmonic Materials in Tonal Music: A Programed Course, Part II (9th Edition)

Harmonic Materials in Tonal Music is an excellent book. I don't use it as a text book, but as a supplement. For this I think it is extremely useful I wish that a new edition were available!
Robert I. Biederwolf. Professor Emeritus, U. Wisconsin.

Arrived in time and in shape for Music Theory II - who hoo!!! On with voicings and tonalities....

It's a good book for people who are learning for their first time, but I learned it in the context of an AP (advanced placement) Music Theory class. The first 7 or so chapters I already knew, as well as almost all of the first book (Basic Materials in Music Theory, also by Harder).

The picture at the top of the Amazon page is outdated, there is a new design for the cover.

However, there are several mistakes both in this book and the prerequisite book. The teacher's edition (actually just the same book but a few editions earlier) did not match up well with the current edition, and the changes were very, very random.

The order of things they introduce is OK but I think they skip alot of material and jump straight to four part harmonies (basically what the entire book is compounding on). For example, you learn rules of voice leading, then rules of voice leading for inverted chords, and then augmented, diminsihed, and 7 chords. Which means you basically have to go back and relearn some of the rules that don't apply anymore since you have more complicated chords. For example, if you have a triad B diminished chord, they will introduce that as a candence and then you have to later relearn it as a V7/5 first inversion (G7/5 in C) because of the perfect authentic cadence or something like that. And you have to relearn figured bass after you learn about 7 chords.

This text book looked ok at first but then it was noticed that all the quiz pages were missing! these quizzes were an integral part of this book. I did contact supplier and have not recieved a reply. I will Not use them again