![]() The only way in which a PDF file is better than a paper book is its ease of distribution and lack of physical weight. ![]() I wanted something that would be flexible and modern that would take advantage of what electronic media can do. There was nothing wrong with the PDF file, but PDF is not a good format for e-books, or at least it's not a flexible format. It had simply been scanned and posted without any kind of editing or correction. I really liked the book, but the OCR text was in terrible shape. I found a couple of things on Project Gutenberg that were interesting but not necessarily appropriate as a college course textbook, then I found a very raw scan of the present work on. After all, while pedagogical approaches to counterpoint may change over time, the subject matter itself is always the same, so why shouldn't I be able to use a really old public-domain book to teach it? These textbooks I would loan to my students for an entire semester for free.Īt some point it occurred to me to look around and see if there might be a really old counterpoint textbook in the public domain that I could use without having to hunt down old editions of the textbook I had chosen. I started collecting older editions of the textbook, which differed only slightly in pagination, not at all in substance, and were abundantly available for anywhere between $4–$10. I could not in good conscience ask my students to pay this much money, but I liked the book. It was especially irksome that the textbook I was using had not had a new edition since 1999 yet the price of the book was still about $125. As long as I've been teaching counterpoint, it has troubled me that the textbook materials have been extremely expensive. Well, at least it's not for making money on my own part. ![]() I suspect that the first question someone might ask when seeing this digital edition of a counterpoint book that's more than 100 years old would be, “Why?” It's certainly not for the money. The full four-part texture, when approached in this way, as systematized in these chapters, will have developed itself naturally into “Counterpoint” and its acquisition will fully prepare the student to undertake the subsequent tasks in homophonic and polyphonic composition. Such general familiarity may be gained by the study of Part II of my “Material,” or Chapters III to XXX of my “Tone-Relations.” It owes its inception to the author’s often expressed conviction that these two courses of study cannot be separated and also to a constantly strengthening belief that the most rational, quickest and best way to acquire a thorough knowledge of the chords and their uses (the recognized purpose of the study of Harmony) is to begin with one part, to pass from that to two, from that to three, and thus gradually arrive at full four-part harmony.įor this reason, an extensive preparatory knowledge of Harmony is not at all necessary, though a general knowledge of the chords will facilitate the study of this book, and is therefore recommended. In the author’s mind it represents a course in Harmony, quite as much as in Counterpoint. The present volume is intended and expected to cover more ground than its title implies. In Cordial Recognition of His Significant
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