|
| Practice of Harmony, The (5th Edition) | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter Spencer
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Category: Book
List Price: $91.60
Buy Used: $26.00
You Save: $65.60 (72%)
New (21) Used (26) from $26.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 197565
Media: Spiral-bound
Edition: 5
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 11 x 9.3 x 1
ISBN: 0131826603
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.25
EAN: 9780131826601
ASIN: 0131826603
Publication Date: July 31, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Textbook 5th edition. CD NOT INCLUDED. Heavy wear, wrinkling, creasing, or tears on the cover and spine. Covers have been torn off, but included. Good binding. NO apparent loose pages. Missing up to fifteen pages. May have unnoticed missing pages, as this is a USED book and pages get lost easily. Light writing and highlighting. Marker on inside cover or edge of book. Moderate staining or wrinkling from liquid damage. Does not affect the text. JG aj nrf All of our books are Legally copy righted US student editions
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
For freshman/sophomore courses in Basic Music Theory, Lower Division Theory and Theory I-IV. With an emphasis on learning and understanding by doing, this text/workbook takes students 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, allowing students to use what was learned in one chapter to help comprehension of the materials in the next. This allows for minimum of memorization since students repeatedly use the concepts throughout the semester.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Very simple Language! pretty comprehensive! but not very deep July 25, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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!!
 Unenthusiastic January 17, 2006
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
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.
 Very Good Book! September 15, 2000
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
It is an excellent book of harmony.It has a great number of exercices.The only thing that i got worried about was the very FEW examples concerning the contents of the book, but if you read carefully you will understand what the author wanted to say!But i still wish the author included more examples of the contents , mainly about the Four-part writing. Anyway, i really enjoyed the book and i am learning a lot from it!
|
|
|
 | |
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.