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Music History/Theory Guide
to Studying for Placement Tests

Areas of Study
  • Conducting/Score Reading
  • Scores
  • Theory (notes)
  • Notation texts
  • Musicology
    Composer dates Music Theory - Ear Training/Sight Singing:
  • Texts
  • Sound Files
  • String Terminology
  • Musicology Terminology
  • Music Education Chamber Music Literature Piano Pedagogy Texts
  • Essays in String Pedagogy
  • String Pedagogy Bookstore
  • String Resources
  • String and Piano Etudes
  • Advanced Violin and Viola Literature
  • Baroque Resources
  • Performance Practice Texts


  • baroque bow

    Good luck in preparation for your auditions and placement tests. On this page you will find a collection of notes, links, and input from other students and professors, regarding the materials to be examined for placement tests, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. These tests are required (with rising levels of difficulty, naturally) in order that it may be determined whether the student needs remedial work in the subject areas.

    Graduate school can be difficult, and one wonders, sometimes, if the time taken to complete the degree(s) is worth the sacrifice in practice time. Doctoral work, in particular, is very stressful; lots of the best players stop at the M.M. in performance. However, if you want to teach in a university, a doctorate is increasingly more of a requirement, I think it's safe to say. Being called "Dr." the rest of your life is not a small thing, either, for some people. It was once mentioned to me that most university courses are only "introductory" in nature, which is sobering thought, but accurate, I believe. I would also recommend Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D. by Robert Peters. It's not musical, but it's a very useful book.

    See:

  • Issues in Choice of Undergraduate Programs (audition requirements for undergraduate programs in violin and viola)





  • Good beginning books for self-study:
    Essentials of Music Theory: Complete Self-Study Course
    Alfred's Essentials of Jazz Theory

    Standard texts:
    Burkhart, Charles: Anthology for Musical Analysis
    Dallin, Leon: Techniques Of Twentieth-Century Composition
    Grout, Donald: A History of Western Music


    Ear Training Texts:

    Stefan Kostka:
    Tonal Harmony, With an Introduction to Twentieth-Century Music
    Student Workbook and CD for use with Tonal Harmony
    Audio CDs for use with Tonal Harmony

    Ralph Turek:
    The Elements of Music, Vol. 1
    Workbook for the Elements of Music, Vol. 1
    The Elements of Music, Vol. 2
    Workbook for the Elements of Music, Vol. 2, not listed: email vendor to make sure you're getting the correct book.
    Elements Music Vol 1&2 2e Cd


    Notation Texts:

    Adler, Samuel. Study of Orchestration, Third Edition
    Fux, John. Study of Counterpoint
    Gerou, Tom and Lusk, Linda. Essential Dictionary of Music Notation: The Most Practical and Concise Source for Music Notation
    Kennan, Kent and Grantham, Donald. The Technique of Orchestration and CD Recording Package
    Read, Gardner. Music Notation
    Persichetti,Vincent. Twentieth-Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practice
    Piston, Walter. Orchestration
    Piston, Walter. Counterpoint
    Piston, Walter. Harmony: 5th ed.
    Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay. Principles of Orchestration
    Stone, Kurt. Music Notation in the Twentieth Century: A Practical Guidebook



    Performance Practice:

    MUST HAVE: Judy Tarling's Baroque String Playing for Ingenious Learners, available in the US through Boulder Early Music Shop
    Also see: Baroque Resources

    Texts:
    Apel, Willi. Italian Violin Music of the Seventeenth Century
    Boyden, David. The History of Violin Playing from Its Origins to 1761 and Its Relationship to the Violin and Violin Music
    Carter, Stewart. A Performer's Guide to Seventeenth-Century Music
    Donington, Robert. Baroque Music: Style and Performance
    Donington, Robert. The Interpretation of Early Music
    Donington, Robert. String Playing in Baroque Music
    Neumann, Frederick. Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music: With Special Emphasis on J. S. Bach
    Stowell, Robin. Performing Beethoven
    Stowell, Robin. Violin Technique and Performance Practice in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries


    Score Reading/Conducting:

    Samuel Adler. Study of Orchestration, Third Edition

    Hector Berlioz. Treatise on Instrumentation

    Dave Black. Essential Dictionary of Orchestration

    George Burt. The Art of Film Music

    Deryck Cooke. The Language of Music

    David Daniels. Orchestral Music

    Robert W. Demaree. The Complete Conductor

    Harold Farberman, Thom Proctor. The Art of Conducting Technique: A New Perspective

    Cecil Forsyth. Orchestration

    Norman Del Mar.
    Anatomy of the Orchestra
    Conducting Beethoven: Overtures, Concertos, Missas Solemnis
    Conducting Beethoven: The Symphonies
    Conducting Berlioz
    Conducting Brahms
    Conducting Elgar

    Michael Dickreiter, Reinhard G. Pauly. Score Reading: A Key to the Music Experience

    Knud Jeppesen. Counterpoint: The Polyphonic Vocal Styles of the Sixteenth Century

    Norman Lebrecht. The Maestro Myth: Great Conductors in Pursuit of Power

    Alfred Mann. The Study of Fugue

    Brock McElheran. Conducting Technique for Beginners and Professionals

    Reginald O. Morris, Howard Ferguson. Preparatory Exercises in Score Reading

    Walter Piston. Orchestration

    Jean Rameau. Treatise on Harmony

    Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. Principles of Orchestration

    Jeff Rona. The Reel World: Scoring for Pictures

    Max Rudolf. The Grammar of Conducting: A Comprehensive Guide to Baton Technique and Interpretation

    Felix Salzer. Structural Hearing Tonal Coherence in Music (Two Volumes Bound As One) [Schenkerian analysis: read Piston and Fux first.]

    Hermann Scherchen. Handbook of Conducting

    Arnold Schoenberg. Structural Functions of Harmony

    Gunther Schuller. The Compleat Conductor

    Ernst Toch. The Shaping Forces in Music: An Inquiry into the Nature of Harmony, Melody, Counterpoint, Form (The Dover Series of Study Editions, Chamber Music, Orchestral Works, Operas in Full Score)




    Musicology

    Note that human life does not lend itself well to restricted categories
    and both the dates and the styles are subject to change and debate among scholars.
    Historical Era
    Approximate dates
    Representative Composers
    (Small sample)
    Medieval ca. 500-1450 Hildegard von Bingen, Machaut, Landini, Léonin, Pérotin.
    See: Wikipedia List
    Renaissance 1450-1600 Josquin, Dufay, Palestrina.
    See: Wikipedia List
    Baroque
    Also see: 1725-1770 Roccoco (and/or Galant)
    1600-1750 Bach, Vivaldi, Tartini, Geminiani, Handel.
    See: Wikipedia List
    Classical 1750-1820 Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven.**
    See: Wikipedia List
    Romantic
    Also see: Nationalism - Grieg, Sibelius
    1820-1910 Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Paganini, Brahms.
    See: Wikipedia List
    Contemporary, also referred to as 20th Century or Modern. Includes subcategories such as:
    Impressionism: Debussy, Ravel
    Expressionism: Schoenberg, Berg, Webern
    Americana: Copland
    Neo Classicism: Stravinsky, Copland
    Neo Romanticism: Piston, Barber, Hanson
    Experimentalism: Brown, Cage
    Minimalism: Glass, Reich

    Also see: Further Discussion: Contemporary Musicology

    1910-present Bartók, Bernstein, Cage, Babbit, Gershwin, Varese, Messiean, Stockhausen, Takemitsu.
    See: Wikipedia List

    ** From A History of Western Music: "Through external circumstances and the force of his own genius he transformed this heritage and became the source of much that was characteristic of the Romantic period. But he himself is neither Classic nor Romantic; he is Beethoven, and his figure towers like a colossus astride the two centuries." [Donald Jay Grout. (3rd Edition with Claude V. Palisca.) W. W. Norton & Co., Inc. New York. 1973. p. 521. Newest ed. of the Grout, 7th ed., Burkholder



    Composers' Dates:
    Josquin circa 1450-1521
    Vivaldi 1678-1741
    J.S. Bach:
    Arnstadt 1703-1707
    Mühlhausen 1707-1708
    Weimer 1708-1717
    Cöthen 1717-1723
    St. Thomas' School, Leipzig 1723-1750
    Handel 1685-1759
    Haydn 1732-1809 (d. 77)
    Mozart 1756-1791 (d. 35)
    Beethoven 1770-1827 (d. 57)
    Bartók 1881-1945 (d. 64)

  • Studying Music History, 2nd ed., David Poultney
  • A History of Western Music, Sixth Edition, Donald J. Grout, Claude V. Palisca. Newest ed. of the Grout, 7th ed., Burkholder
  • Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music: Ancient to Baroque (6-CD set), Donald J. Grout.
  • Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music : Classic to Modern (6-CD set), Donald J. Grout.
  • Study and Listening Guide for Concise History of Western Music and Norton Anthology of Western Music, J. Peter Burkholder.

    Outlines of Grout History of Western Music
    Music History, Theory and Composition Links

    THEORY

    Circle of 5ths Ear Training MP3's, please see: Sound Files. Includes: Scales, Modes, Chords, Consonance/Dissonance, Meter, Articulations and Timbre.

    The "circle of fifths" is really a spiral of fifths, never really meeting itself, since pairs such as F#/Gb are absolutely not the same note as one another. They're a comma apart (almost 1/4 of a semitone) in pitch.

    I Tonic
    ii Supertonic
    iii Mediant
    IV Subdominant
    V Dominant
    vi Submediant or superdominant
    viiº Leading Tone


    Inversions:
    Triads: 6 6/4
    7th chords: 7 6/5 4/3 4/2


    Cadences:
    V-I, V-i Authentic
    IV-I, iv-i Plagel
    x-V, Half
    V-(VI), V-(vi) Deceptive
    iv(6) - V Phrygian: in minor, modal. Mixolydian: rock and roll. C: I-VII-I


    Modes: (Modal degrees are 3 and 6. Church: 5 whole steps and 2 1/2 steps. "Dr. Phil and Molly")
    Ionian 3-4, 7-8
    Dorian 2-3, 6-7
    Phrygian 1-2, 5-6
    Lydian 4-5, 7-8
    Mixolydian 3-4, 6-7
    Aeolian 2-3, 5-6
    Locrian 1-2, 4-5


    Modes:
    D Dorian
    E Phrygian
    F Lydian
    G Mixolydian
    A Aeolian
    C Ionian


    Augmented 6th Chords: Contain interval of dd3th or Aug6, most often found inverted. Origin of names unknown. When reduced to root position, they can be seen to function as altered subdominant or supertonie chords. May be spelled enharmonically and used for modulation. [See: Augmented 6th Chords, UT Austin and Chord types, Indiana University.]



    Italian -
    German -
    French -
    Neapolitan -
    Major triad on flat sueprtonic,
    1st inversion.


    Non-chordal tones:
  • P.T. - passing tones: fill 3rds or 4ths, or 2nds (chrom)
  • N.T. - neighboring tones: (auxiliary or embellishing tones) one step or half-step above or below, accented or unaccented
  • Anticipation
  • Suspension
  • Decorated resolution of suspension
  • Changing note (nota cambiata: up a 3rd, down stepwise
  • Double neighboring tone: of four notes, 1st and last are the same
  • Unprepared NT: by leap
  • Retardation: suspensions that resolve upward
  • E.T. - escape tone (echappee): rhythmically weak dissonance approached by step and resolved by leap
  • Pedal

    Dominant 9th: Major triad, m 7th, M or m 9th. 7 and 9 resovle down by step. 5th omitted. Modulation: diatonic, chromatic, enharmonic. Transient key cells.

    N6: 6 refers to inversion.
    A6: 6 refers to interval.


    7th chords:
    Dom: M3 P5 m7
    M: M3 P5 M7
    m: m3 P5 m7
    small: m3 P5 M7
    dd (freely): m3 d5 d7
    large: M3 A5 M7
    A6: m3 d5 m7


    Harmonic series: 8, 5, 4, 3, m3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1/2, 1/2, 1/2, 1/2


    Blue note: flat 3rd or 7th


    C c g c' (middle C) e' g' b6' c" d" e" f" g"


    middle C=261.63
    d=293.66
    e=329.63
    f=349.23
    g=392.00
    a=440
    b=493.88
    c=523.25



    1/2-steps:
    M: 3-4, 7-8
    natural m: 2-3, 5-6
    harmonic m: 2-3, 5-6, 6-7 (step and 1/2), 7-8
    melodic m:
    ascending form: 2-3, 7-8:
    descending form: 6-5, 3-2 (like natural m.)

    Newer remarks (Bradley Lehman):

  • Lindley's article "Temperaments" in New Grove is indeed an excellent place to start, and indispensable reading. So is his "well-tempered clavier" article there, but be aware that there are two important numerical errors there in the charts he gives for Neidhardt's systems for organs. I have the corrections noted here, for those printed errors in New Grove: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/larips/errata.html.

  • Additional theory/history resources about tuning are in the "Further resources" section of my newest paper, "Bach's art of temperament": That also has more detail about the different tuning strategies, beyond your short and incomplete list of "Tuning: Pythagorean, just, meantone, equal tempered."

  • A rather large collection of comparative temperaments is part of my article "Bach's extraordinary temperament: our Rosetta Stone" (free download). That article also has a lot to say about the "1/6 comma meantone, an 18th century standard" system as someone else has remarked.

  • You might want to say more about "Hertz: c.p.s." to clarify it. Something like: "A measurement of the vibrations per second, or cycles per second (CPS), in pitch. Developed in the 19th century."

  • Also enlarge "Overtone: pitches generated above fundamental" as that's too vague. The point there is that it's not just any old pitches above the fundamental, willy-nilly, but exact multiples. The frequency is 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, etc the fundamental vibration rate, and forms the harmonic series.


    Remarks:
    In your "Tuning" list at the bottom, the most important category is *not* listed: "irregular" temperaments. Read, especially, Lindley's article "Temperaments" in New Grove.

    In your little "Cents" table, 698 is not an equal-tempered fifth; 700 is. 698 is 1/6 comma meantone, an 18th century standard; see especially Bruce Haynes' article in 1991 Early Music about that.

    Similarly, your other measurements of 400 and 300 (and that other table of frequencies, 261.63 etc) make sense only in context of equal temperament, which really has little to do with the 18th century situation. (They knew about equal temperament but discarded it, both because it sounds bad and because it's difficult to set accurately.) Pure major thirds are much lower than 400 cents (i.e. about 386). 1/6 comma major thirds are about 393.

    In your overtone series [C c g c' (middle C) e' g' b6' c" d" e" f" g"] laid out just above that: the penultimate note should be closer to f# than f.

    Above that, throw away the layout of "8, 5, 4, 3, m3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1/2, 1/2, 1/2, 1/2" and instead go look at an orchestration book about the natural notes available on horns and trumpets...that will give you a much clearer sense of the way the intervals are laid out, instead of counting any number of steps or half-steps.

    I think that it is interesting that no treatises or *critical* histories of music are included on the list. I would have totally revised the link and included such things as Rameau's Treatise on Harmony, the works of Walther, Werckmeister, Praetorius, Mattheson, and other theoriticians, and such performance works as Karl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Versuch ueber das wahre Art des Klavier zu spielen, the Berlioz/Strauss Treatise on Instrumentation, Leopold Mozart's Treatise on Violin Playing, etc. I also would have used (instead of the Grout work. Newest ed. of the Grout, 7th ed., Burkholder ) Paul Henry Lang's Music in Western Civilization. I also would have used such works as Friedrich Blume's Protestant Church Music, biographical and autobiographical works, etc. Grout is good as a very basic intro, but is too general and often inaccurate. [ED NOTE: Please see Violinists' Library for more books on string pedagogy.]



  • Forms:
    Binary
    Ternary
    Strophic
    Theme and Variations
    Rondo
    Bar Form: AAB

    sonata allegro form diagram

    Sonata Allegro Form: not a form but a procedure of key conflict and configuration. Key and chord are different concepts. Actually only applies to a small number of works. See Charles Rosen, Sonata Forms.
  • Exposition: Theme I in Tonic, Theme II in Dominant. Relatable keys;
  • Development: Development of themes (may bring in new themes). Tonal fluctation;
  • Recapitulation: Themes I and II, both in Tonic


    Phrase group: phrase, phrase, phrase.
    Period: phrase HC, phrase FC.
    Single phrase period: phrase.
    Simple binary: A cadence B (no return to A)
    Ternary: A B A (or C)
    Rounded binary: A B,A


    Cents:
    1/2 step = 100 cents
    1 step = 200 cents
    1 octave = 1200 cents
    P5 = 700 cents, 698 equal temperament
    M3 = 400 cents
    m3 = 300 cents
    342 (171 x 2) = Blue Note


    c. 1600-1875: any chord altered to become M or Mm7 will automatically assume dominant function. In a M7th, the m refers to the 7th, not the top 3rd.


    Tonic Harmony: I i vi6 iii
    Dominant Harmony: V V7 viiº viiº7
    Subdominant Harmony: IV ii (ii 6/5) iv iiº vi N6 A6





    TERMINOLOGY
    Schenker (1869-1935): German theorist. "Chord of nature": Overtone series, 5th partial, tonal center of a work. Klang. Bachground: Ursatz: from foreground, mdidleground, elimianting details. Chord grammar, prolongation, chord significance. Seeing large scale connections. [See: A Guide to Schenker Analysis.]

    Anhemitonic: pentatonic scale with no half-steps.
    Appogiatura: "to lean": non-harmonic tones; Appoggiaturas are not necessarily approached by leap. And they're sub-components of lots of other types of ornaments.
    Compound interval: P/P, M/m, m/M, dd/A, A/dd.
    Clef Signs: Treble, bass, tenor, alto, sophrano, baritone, mezzo soph.
    Gregorian notation: Liber Usualis
    Harpsichord: plucked. Clavichord: struck.
    Hertz: c.p.s.
    Hemiola:
    Homophonic: one melodic line with accompaniment.
    Isorhythm: Mensual Music: Basis of modern system. 13th-16th Century, contrast to plainsong. Polyphonic, each note has a determined value. Notation established 1250.
    Metric Modulation: Eliot Carter
    Monophonic: one melodic line without accompaniment.
    Neoclassicism: the use of classical forms without the tonal structures on which they are based.
    Overtone: pitches generated above fundamental.
    Partial: all pitches of the harmonic series.
    Polyphonic (contrapuntal): two or more melodic lines.
    Real answer: exact intervallic transportion.
    Sonatina: sonata without development section.
    Tablature:
    Tendency tones: fa--mi, ti--do.
    Timbre:
    Tonal answer: certain intervals adjusted to accommodate tonality.
    Tuning: Pythagorean, just, meantone, equal tempered.



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