The Practice of Harmony (4th Edition) [Spiral-bound]

Peter Spencer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 22, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0130223506 | ISBN-13: 978-0130223500 | Edition: 4

With an emphasis on learning and understanding by doing, this book takes the reader from music fundamentals through harmony in common practice to some of the more important harmonic procedures of the 20th century. The book, easily accessible to all readers, is an excellent reference for the experienced musician. An abundance of musical examples can be found in every chapter. Analytical examples are drawn from three popular anthologies. Exercises are found in every chapter, often with “Suggestions and Strategies” to help the reader approach the exercises intelligently and systematically. Foundations, designed to ensure that the reader has a solid grasp of fundamentals, Harmony in Common Practice designed to develop a complete understanding of the principles of tertian harmony as they pertain to common practice by means of the Diatonic Vocabulary and Chromatic Vocabulary and Post-Common Practice Harmony designed to introduce the student to some of the more important harmonic procedures that have either evolved from or developed as a reaction to common practice. In all, the book is divided into 30 chapters. Beginning musicians wishing to learn the key elements of harmony or experienced musicians wishing to review the basics of harmony.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

With an emphasis on learning and understanding by doing, the text takes the student from music fundamentals through harmony in common practice to some of the more important harmonic procedures of the 20th century. The approach is "additive" throughout; to the extent that it is pedagogically feasible, the student uses what was learned in one chapter to help to comprehend the materials in the next. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

With an emphasis on learning and understanding by doing, this book takes the reader from music fundamentals through harmony in common practice to some of the more important harmonic procedures of the 20th century. The book, easily accessible to all readers, is an excellent reference for the experienced musician. An abundance of musical examples can be found in every chapter. Analytical examples are drawn from three popular anthologies. Exercises are found in every chapter, often with “Suggestions and Strategies” to help the reader approach the exercises intelligently and systematically. Foundations, designed to ensure that the reader has a solid grasp of fundamentals, Harmony in Common Practice designed to develop a complete understanding of the principles of tertian harmony as they pertain to common practice by means of the Diatonic Vocabulary and Chromatic Vocabulary and Post-Common Practice Harmony designed to introduce the student to some of the more important harmonic procedures that have either evolved from or developed as a reaction to common practice. In all, the book is divided into 30 chapters. Beginning musicians wishing to learn the key elements of harmony or experienced musicians wishing to review the basics of harmony.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 422 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 4 edition (November 22, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130223506
• ISBN-13: 978-0130223500
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,906,661 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unenthusiastic, January 17, 2006

By 

Dr. Christopher Coleman (HONG KONG) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practice of Harmony, The (5th Edition) (Spiral-bound)

I'm not as enthusiastic as the previous reviewer. I have taught music theory at all levels for 17 years, and while there is good material in Spencer's The Practice of Harmony, there is much that seems downright peculiar. If your theory professor assigns this book, of course you've got to use it; otherwise, much of the material is presented more clearly in other sources. The problems are twofold: reliance on standard theoretical concepts divorced from practice or context, and Spencer's attempt to either explain concepts in new ways or offer shortcuts in learning or remembering the concepts--it's a laudable effort, to be sure, but one which leads him astray.

Take, for example, this wonderfully abstruse line from his "Suggestions and Strategies" for learning triad quality: "If the root of a triad is natural and the fifth is flat, or if the root is sharp and the fifth is natural, or if the fifth is double-flat, the triad is diminished." (p. 69) All that may well be true, but if you've memorised that and still can't tell that the third of the chord is minor and the fifth is diminished, you have no recognition of what a diminished triad IS. There's quite a difference between naming and understanding, and Spencer ignores this.

Another and much more significant problem occurs with Spencer's explanation of the minor. Frankly, he doesn't seem to understand that there is not a "harmonic minor key" or a "natural minor key"--he does not use the terms, but in the section "Triads in Major and Minor Keys" (p. 68) he shows the triads first on C major, then on A minor (natural), a minor (harmonic), and a minor (melodic)--ascending only. Now, while there are SCALES in these various forms of the minor, they represent quite different things from the triads that are found in most common practice period music. Even triads built on the harmonic minor scale, with a triad of III+ (augmented) do not reflect the actual triads in most music--III is much more commonly found in the music as a major triad than as an augmented one, regardless of the theory. Minor is a complex situation, not easily explained; but a piece is in a minor mode which uses the various forms of minor--melodic for the melodies (mostly), harmonic for the harmonies (mostly, except III), and in Classical music, almost never natural--purely a theoretical construct because of the key signature linkage with the relative major. Natural minor in Classical music occurs as the descending form of the melodic minor. The real problem is that the minor scales are all theoretical constructs and not reflective of the music--the issue is how to handle scale degrees 6 and 7. To solve this, rather than address it directly, Spencer introduces yet another theoretical construct, the 'synthetic' minor scale, made up of a combination of all the other forms together. It's an appalling idea, one I've never seen elsewhere, and totally without context. Spencer would have been better served by introducing the minor mode in its own chapter, rather than trying to tack it on as an appendage to the major mode.

Lack of context lies at the heart of Spencer's approach, and to be fair this is true of far too many theory books. Instead of discussing the basis of functional harmony in the Classical Period, for example, we get the same tired "Primary Triads in Root Position". I'm of the firm belief that discussion function of chords--Dominant preparation for ii and IV, Dominant function for V and vii, Tonic for I and Tonic substitute for vi in major--is much more useful than listing all the "rules" of doublings, etc. Similarly, cadence types are named, but the functions of the various types are not described.

All in all, Spencer's approach in The Practice of Harmony is an odd combination of pretty standard pedantic theory and new, sometimes confusing approaches. Theory is really nothing by itself; without a musical context it is meaningless. Yet Spencer never attempts to provide such a context; indeed, he uses not a single example from actual music literature. You are better served elsewhere.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keeps it simple, plenty of exercises, March 18, 2010

By 

Chad T. (Reno, NV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practice of Harmony, The (5th Edition) (Spiral-bound)

As a teacher, I prefer books that have a maximum number of exercises and a minimum number of examples and text. This book has as many exercises as humanly possible so students can have maximum reinforcement of concepts learned, and examples in this book are minimal, so it's perfect for me. I prefer to use my own examples and hate being forced to use whatever the favorite example is of the textbook author. Think of the book as a big workbook with explanations that are as brief as possible. Exactly the way I like it! My students all love the book. I suppose they'd hate it if the one teaching them didn't know what they were doing or had a hard time coming up with their own examples/explanations when questions come up.

I don't believe that it's possible to divorce "theory" from "real life music". If a student can recognize an augmented fourth in the context of a theory textbook, then they can recognize the same interval in the context of a piece of music. Our local music teachers association has a theory test each year, and every year my students and I laugh at the "analysis" section of the test: after the students get done answering 50 questions proving their knowledge of scales, chords, intervals, etc. removed from musical context, they have to do the same thing (another 10 questions) in the context of a piece of music (identify the circled interval in measure 6, identify the inversion of the chord in measure 7, etc.). Never is there a case when a student who understands concepts "divorced" of music cannot understand the same thing in the context of music.

Readers don't have to worry about reading 15 pages of text to understand one concept. The book always gets straight to the point. The pages in this book are well-spent focusing on pages and pages of exercises rather than examples.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very simple Language! pretty comprehensive! but not very deep, July 25, 2007

By 

Chekad Sarami "Persian MuMatician" (Fayetteville, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Practice of Harmony (Paperback)

I am a mathemaician!! and I am studying this book along with two other books ( the shaping of music by Russel and Elementary harmony by Ottman) to hopefully write music!!

This book as the other reviewer said doesn't have exmples from literature but at the end of each chapter as exercises it referes you to designated pages from three other books that contain examples in literature. Here I should say the book covers the material in a rather easy language much easier! somehow more clear than other two books that I am reading!

In the book (page 261) says that borrowed chords are nearly always appear in the major key! while obviosly, in minor keys the chords: I ( picardy third) and ii, IV ( in melodic minor when 6 is raised) are not unusual.

I guess we have still a long way to see a good book in harmony. something real practical. But for now, i guess if you want to learn harmony by yourself you should read maybe several books!!