Harmony: Fifth Edition (Hardcover)

by Walter Piston (Author), Mark DeVoto (Editor)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; Fifth Edition edition (March 17, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393954803
• ISBN-13: 978-0393954807
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #346,004 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One Approach To Harmony Instruction, August 30, 2004

By	frankp93 "frankp93" (Danbury, Connecticut United States) - See all my reviews

I'm hearing a lot of politics and bad music school flashbacks from some of these reviews of Piston's Harmony, but I think the book's usefulness depends on what you're looking to learn. When I first came across the book (late 70's, early 80's) I was more interested in composition than performing or analysing existing music. Piston's Harmony teaches by demonstrating snapshots of particular harmonic practices from more or less standard classical pieces. These illustrations are then combined with variations on figured bass or melody harmonization exercises. For what I was interested in at the time, this approach left little room for creativity. A composer-friend suggested Schoenberg's Theory of Harmmony, which approaches harmony from the standpoint of a beginning composer learning the craft of connecting chords and gradually mastering the material by composing his own chord progressions. There are no illustrations of existing pieces and no "half-filled in" exercises to complete. Sure, there are also pages of Schoenberg's rants and diatribes to wade through (what a blogger he would have made!), but this approach made sense to me and I was on my way.

So why four stars for Piston? Well, years later as a player and lifelong student, I became more interested in understanding existing tonal music. I came back to Piston and discovered that I was now more familiar with many of the examples and could better appreciate the harmonic effects as one aspect in the overall context of the whole piece of music. For myself, the written exercises still have limited value, although I feel better prepared for them and, as Schoenberg himself might have said, worked on seriously they won't do anyone harm.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Take all reviews with a grain of salt...., June 19, 2003

By A Customer

Interesting to read the reviews about this book. Just because a book is "hard" or confuses you doesn't mean it's a bad book. Look, I'm a professional musician, composer and teacher. This book is the most complete and best harmony text out there. There's plenty of room for personal preference, and it's probably not fair to say one book is better than another. This book, however, is truly exceptional, and the 5th edition is the best so far.

BTW, I taught myself harmony from this book when I was in high school (with the guidance of a teacher reviewing my exercises) and tested out of all theory at a prestigious university. Basically I got the equivalent of an undergrad theory background from studying this text.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This Edition: Bloated and Tedious, March 9, 1999

By A Customer

Walter Piston's 'Harmony' is the finest book with this title (there have been many) ever written. This edition turns that great work into a bloated, tedious, clumsily-written monstrosity. Its introduction admits that Walter Piston, had he lived to see it, would not have approved of much of its additions and deletions. Let's take it at its word and prefer an earlier edition.