Areas of Study
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)
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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
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
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
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)
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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
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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
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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
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 -
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German -
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French -
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Neapolitan -
Major triad on flat sueprtonic,
1st inversion.
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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.]
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Forms:
Binary
Ternary
Strophic
Theme and Variations
Rondo
Bar Form: AAB
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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