Customer Reviews

Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music (Second Edition)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Robert Gauldin's textbook aims at instilling in the student an awareness of the linear forces that create music. In his preface, Gauldin states that traditional theory and functional harmonic analysis "tends to neglect the melodic aspects of the music and the way those linear forces shape the harmony." This point of view is heartily endorsed by this reviewer. The text is organized into four main sections: basic elements of music, diatonic harmony (including binary/ternary form), chromatic harmony (including sonata form and contrapuntal forms), and advanced chromatic techniques. Five appendices include acoustics, modes and scales, species counterpoint, Jazz and commercial music, and conducting patterns. The text purposes to introduce students to linear-reductive (i.e., Schenkerian) analysis on lower structural levels (reductions tend to be foreground and early middleground). As it is not a text in Schenkerian analysis per se, and as the more remote structural levels are progressively more difficult to perceive Gauldin does not burden the students with Schenker's more esoteric terminology for larger formal constructs. Gauldin also provides the student with an introduction to the implication-realization models of Leonard B. Meyer. The explanations of concepts are lucid and conversational; the analyses are insightful and reveal to the student the fundamental voice leading underlying a given passage. The text is very attractively produced, and joins the texts of Mitchell (Elementary Harmony), Aldwell & Schachter (Harmony & Voice Leading), and Forte (Tonal Harmony in Concept & Practice) in the task of attempting to enlighten and sensitize students to the melodic dimension of music, of which harmony is a by-product. An important by-product, to be sure, and one that in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries assumes the structural role held by melody in the previous centuries. Yet it is important to teach music theory from an historical perspective, and Gauldin's text does just this. He achieves a perfect balance between the vertical and the horizontal dimensions of music

I quite enjoy professor Gauldin's harmony text. It was comprehensive and yes, as the publisher's review states concise. Personally, I studied theory/harmony out of several different texts (Benjamin, et.al.; Siegmeister; Kostka; Piston) as an undergraduate and on my own time and I find Gauldin's to be one of the best I have come across. While in theory pedagogy class I was able to study and dissect over two dozen texts from various regions and time periods. "Harmonic Practice..." is a modern text which is great today for the modern student. The use of basic Schenker reductions is an excellent idea and one that helps the students realize linear aspects of the music that many past harmony texts either ignore or too briefly discuss. Gauldin gives a nice balance of both the vertical and linear aspects of music throughout this text (it reminds somewhat,although much better, of Elie Siegmeister's "Harmony & Melody"). The overall appearance of the book is very similar to many of the current high school texts that students use today. This is a comfortable approach for students coming into theory for the first time or with little background in the area. Many of the reviews I have read seem to be critical in areas they know little of. Yes, Gauldin presents the basics (scales, chords, etc.), but many, many undergraduate level texts do so in order for review. Also, many critics have discussed professor Gauldin's scale building on 5ths. While this is in the text it is not the primary focus on scale construction, merely a footnote (p. 27). Overall this is a very good theory text for undergrauates which could and eventually will use some improvements (the misprint in the bass of the second mm. in Ex. 10 p. 107). This book gives much insight into many aspects of beginning theory, basic Schenker principles, voice-leading, form (the excursions are a great idea), and analysis that many other books in this field often neglect. Like most popular theroy texts, "Harmonic Practice" is excellent for an undergrad program, so long as the students have a teacher with a strong foundation in theory. I highly recommend this text.

This book is quite good despite some of the reviews presented here. The MAIN reason I adopted this book for my Harmony Class was due to the fact that my students reviewed it and they found it to be superior to the textbook we had been using. (5th Edition DeVoto/Piston-Ouch!) What I like about the book is that it teaches structure/color & structure/motion from the beginnning. Even though it doesn't use full blown Schenkerian analysis, my class and I have found the graphs to be extremely helpful in understanding the underlying structure of a work. It is one of the few texts that demonstrate that there is more to analyzing music than the, impressive but sadly inefficient, Roman Numerals. I have yet to find a perfect Harmony textbook, but this one is close. I recommend it highly.

This is the theory book my university uses for it's theory courses. We use it for Theory 1 through Theory 4 (2 years). I've loved this book with what I've studied this far. I do agree with those who have said you have to be ambitious to take on this book on your own. Our professors do well with their explanations and play the exerpts on piano (they use the pre-recorded examples when it's above their abilities). In combination with a good teachers, this book is awesome. I could personally sit in a theory class all day with this book, but then again, I'm a major music dork.

I was in Cambridge when, looking at Heffers, I met this book. I was preparing a Harmony course merging Schönberg with Kostka/Payne, and I was looking for something practical and rich of examples; so the title kept my attention. Then I was called outside in a hurry, and without thinking very much, I bought the volume. What a mistake! First of all it is full of errors: from real ones (a major sixth doesn't have 8 semitones) to typographical (almost all the headnotes are wrong). Moreover terms and rules are absolutely non-standard. And, as a cherry on the cake, when, in the appendix, he tries to explain some "Fundamentals of Acoustic, he reveals a great deal of ignorance, defining a logarithm base 10 (where he needed a logarithm base 2), confusing energy with amplitude, and giving vague explanations of the length of an instrument. Definitely, there are better books!

When I first bought this book, I flipped through the pages and thought, "ALright! all those concepts I keep hearing about explained in a straightforward, color-coded manner!"

Unfortunately, as I started using the book in the introductory music theory class at the university of chicago, I was disappointed. Chief among its flaws are what I see as a classic case of "textbook multiple personality disorder." Gauldin can't make up his mind if he wants to write a serious book for the serious student or a superficial book for someone who has never seen theory before; although he feels compelled to explain utter basics such as scales and chords, at other times he assumes that the student knows far more is contained in the pages in the book - the examples in the book, and especially the excercises in the workbook are far harder than the rather high-schoolish level of explanation most topics are treated with.

The book is ok for learning the facts and how to go through the motions. Not very insightful or stimulating. Rather dry and unexciting. Still, it is possible to learn from it, and it is quite logical (although like i said the examples I found often worthless). Still, if you are brand new to music theory, I would recommend a lower level text or workbook which supplies plenty of more basic excercises before getting to the harder ones. ANd if you already have had music theory, i dont think this book has much to offer except as a reference.

Robert Gauldin's "Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music" may not be the world's greatest textbook for freshman theory, but it is not as bad as many reviews have indicated. Like his other books (on counterpoint) it does not teach itself. It is only a tool for a talented and well-prepared teacher. If consideration is given to the ideas contained within, the student can learn a great deal. Robert Gauldin is a talented and knowlegeable teacher, and both he and his book deserve more respect than they have been given in some of the reviews.

Gauldin's text is very frustrating to read because the language and presentation is loose and imprecise. He thoroughly confuses the topic of the diatonic scale by defining a semitone on p. 10 (note the misprint in the definition, which is repeated later in the text) by a rigorous method, and then on p. 27 suggests building the scale upward by perfect fifths. Why? The latter is a totally differnt scale and does not even close on the octave. You can't make a scale with only perfect fifths, but the author not only leaves you with the impression you can, but, in addition, that such a scale is the same as the equal tempered scale. If used at all, the concept of building from fifths ought to: 1. be clarified, and 2. introduced before the equal tempered scale rather than the reverse. This is one example. Similarly confusing treatments of basic concepts are found in every chapter.

The book lacks problem sets by chapter. Instead they are put into an overpriced additional book. The problems are often only loosely tied to the text, and tend to start at too high a level of difficulty. There is no attempt to have a graduated set of exercises.

In case you elect not to buy the workbook, the author provides a second set of problems in the body of the text which he calls "examples." Example 9 on p. 106 asks the student to write a voice leading reduction on a staff in the textbook proper, not the workbook. Is this an example or a problem? Why even suggest writing music in the text if there is a workbook?

Many of these "examples" contain critical information and ought to be true examples and either have the answers written in, or given in the margins of the text. By making unanswered problems out of examples the author makes it very easy for a student to misinterpret a concept amd give an incorrect answer to fundamental information and has no way of knowing the error. For the "examples" like the one on p. 109, the student is given no idea of what a correct answer is. To call these problems or exercises "examples" is a lie and creates a terrible format for an introductory textbook for freshmen.

Example 26 on p. 188 gives two lines from Death and Transfiguration by Strauss. The author's point is that accented nonchordal tones transform a banal passage into "one with great emotional impact." Apparently he did not listen to the piano rendition on his CD. It is banal. It has zero emotional impact. Nowhere does he mention the importance of the sustained crescendo eventually introducing a huge brass section for the lines he is discussing. I submit that the superb orchestration of the work, which makes excellent use of the affect of a good brass section, would give the ending great impact even without the accented non-chordal tones. Just listen to the rendition on the CD to hear the how exciting the accented non-chordal tones are by themselves.

New terms are not always defined at first use, and rarely can be found in the index, which is extremely poor.

The copy editing is exceedingly poor leaving many errors.

I have tried to be very specific about the type of problems that plague this text and could cite dozens of additional examples. I absolutely do not recommend using this text.

I am currently a TA at a university and have been forced to use this book for my class. Forced, mind you, is the operative word here. Of my own free will, I would never have chosen this book. Gauldin often uses terms that are not "standard" in the theory world and even gives an entirely new definition and usage for a term that IS standard. Trying to do suspensions the way Gauldin lays them out (especially in the accompanying workbook) is like doing a crossword puzzle. The student first has to figure out if things go up and down or sideways. I have seen more students unecessarily confused by this book.

Now, granted, another one of my issues with this book might simply be my own personal bias. I am not a Schenkerian. I have never seen the importance in reducing everything interesting in tonal music to I-V-I and mi-re-do. To this end, I have found much of this book completely useless. The harmony is introduced far too slowly with over-emphasis placed on voice-leading reductions rather than "real" music. I would suggest that anyone who actually wants to somewhat learn theory, especially those not in a classroom situation, look into something along the lines of the Kostka/Payne book. I also know one review stated the Gauldin text was vastly superior to the Piston/DeVoto. In that, I have to agree. Simply adding some actual musical examples makes this book a better choice than the Piston. However, I still do not recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn theory.

This is the textbook currently being used at the world-renowned Indiana University School of music, and I must say it baffles me as to why. The book can be described as mediocre in its best sections and downright pathetic in its worst. The writing quality is miserable, and Gauldin ofetn tries to make too much out of too little. Professor Gauldin does do well in presenting all of them most important points and principles of music theory, but the presentation itself is often confusing and excessivly verbose. The book's lack of a glossary of terms presented in the text does little to improve this situation. In addition, when used as a comprehensive course (along with the workbook and the accompanying CD's), the weaknesses are only compounded; as the workbook often moves too rapidly and elaborates poorly on points presented in the text (some of the most diffficult subject matter in the workbook often lies in interpreting Professor Gauldin's directions.) The publisher's review was accurate in one or two respects... the book is very concise (perhaps a little too concise), and the design of the text itself is very appealing to the eye, but don't be fooled, you buy a book for what's inside. If you are a student or musician looking for a good overall guide into theoretical and harmonic practices, bypass this one and go for Walter Piston's books "Harmony" and "Counterpoint".