Counterpoint The Polyphonic Vocal Style of the Sixteenth Century - Nnud Jeppesen ^ Glen Haydon - Seventh - 1958 - Hardcover - Prentice-hall, Inc.

Counterpoint The Polyphonic Vocal Style of the Sixteenth Century Hardcover

INTRODUCTION - TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION

As SUGGESTED by the title, Dr. Jeppesen's Counterpoint is a textbook on the polyphonic vocal style of the sixteenth century. But it is no ordinary textbook, because it maintains an unusually happy balance between theoretical and practical problems, between historical and systematic fc Methodology. It is a practical manual designed for classroom use in �caching modal counterpoint, the logical successor of the old strict or academic counterpoint* and at the same time it affords invaluable material for the musicological seminar in which style-critical problems are _r.ier consideration. The present work is distinguished from the conventional treatise on counterpoint by its freedom from arbitrary rules and by its close adherence to a definite style period as a standard of reference. More and more, thoughtful musicians have come to realize that one cannot teach counterpoint "in general" without inviting endless controversy as to what is permissible and what is not. Hence a textbook based upon wind scholarly research in the music of a great period in the history of ike art brings welcome relief to the serious but perplexed student and teacher of counterpoint.

The following suggestions may be helpful. Although the book is generously supplied with musical examples, students should be required to examine other works of the period for purposes of comparison and performance. I have found the Laudate Pueri2 collection of sixteenth century vocal music, edited by Donald Francis Tovey, very helpful in this connection. Before beginning three-part writing, students should try their hands at writing two-part motets using the motets of Lassus as models. After the first exercises on imitation in two parts, I have students join two of these sections together. The chief problems in this work are the use of imitation, the treatment of the intermediate cadence so as to avoid too pronounced a rhythmical break, and the construction of a strong final cadence. From this sort of exercise to the construction of a motet of modest dimensions is but a step. Students are not only encouraged and pleased by such efforts but they derive great benefits therefrom. A verse or two from the Psalms or a simple couplet or quatrain will afford an ample text.

The course in modal counterpoint in the sixteenth century style is introduced in the third year of the curriculum in music at the University of North Carolina. Other institutions introduce it in the second or even the first year of the undergraduate course, while still others pursue such studies in the graduate school. And strangely enough I believe either one of these plans can be justified�on different grounds, of course. Opinions may vary as to the best time to introduce the study of counterpoint in the curriculum, but in my opinion the important point is not when it shall be introduced but rather, first of all, that it be introduced somewhere in the program and, second, that it be taught so as to give the student some insight into the principles of musical style both with respect to what is characteristic of the period and with respect to what is common to great musical compositions in many different periods.
- GLEN HAYDO

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION

PREFACE

Part I PRELIMINARIES

I. OUTLINE HISTORY OF CONTRAPUNTAL THEORY
Counterpoint and Harmony Contrasted
The Ninth to the Fourteenth Centuries: The Beginnings of Contrapuntal Theory
The Fifteenth Century: Crystallization of Principles
The Sixteenth Century: The Style of Palestrina
The Seventeenth Century: Some Pedagogical Developments
The Eighteenth Century: The Style of Bach
The Nineteenth Century: Palestrina or Bach?
The "Palestrina Movement" after Fux

II. TECHNICAL FEATURES
Notation
The Ecclesiastical Modes
Melody
Harmony

Part 11
CONTRAPUNTAL EXERCISES

INTRODUCTION

III. TWO-PART COUNTERPOINT
First Species
Second Species
Third Species

and much, much More