I have always believed that studying counterpoint is an important aspect of a musical education and leads to a greater understanding of how serious music works than will the study of harmony. While harmonic awareness is quite useful and effective, it is counterpoint that provides the bedrock of great music for the past eight hundred years. Great musical works need the kind of horizontal structure that great voice leading provides.



That being said, species counterpoint is not a compositional process any more than slapping Roman numerals under vertical structures is. It is a pedagogical tool to provide the beginner with important insights about the materials they use in the works. And don't mistake Schoenberg for Fux or Zarlino or even Jeppesen. He uses the structure of species counterpoint to present his method, but has his own adaptations and extensions. Schoenberg is a teacher of modern students learning to compose music in the twentieth century. This is a contemporary method rather than a look back to, say, Palestrina as Jeppesen's book does (as great as that book is).



I like Schoenberg's use of all the C-cleffs to encourage students to develop the ability to read musical scores and transposing instruments. His demonstrations of counterpoint in composition and counterpoint without a cantus firmus are also very interesting and useful for students integrating the idea of counterpoint into real compositions.



Why this book isn't in print is beyond me. Here is a major work by one of the twentieth century's most important composers. Get it back in print and keep it available for serious students.

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