Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hutchinson, Robert, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Humanities--Textbooks.

Humanities.

Arts--Textbooks.

Arts.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Tacoma, WA Robert Hutchinson [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Music Theory for the 21st–Century Classroom is an openly–licensed online four–semester college music theory textbook. This text differs from other music theory textbooks by focusing less on four–part (SATB) voiceleading and more on relating harmony to the phrase. Also, in traditional music theory textbooks, there is little emphasis on motivic analysis and analysis of melodic units smaller than the phrase. In my opinion, this led to students having difficulty with creating melodies, since the training they are given is typically to write a “melody” in quarter notes in the soprano voice of part writing exercises. When the assignments in those texts ask students to do more than this, the majority of the students struggle to create a melody with continuity and with appropriate placement of harmonies within a phrase because the text had not prepared them to do so. In Music Theory for the 21st–Century Classroom, students learn about motive, fragment, phrase, and subphrase, as well as types of melodic alteration like inversion, intervallic change, augmentation, diminution, rhythmic change, ornamentation, extension, and retrograde. By understanding motive and subphrase (also known as “phrase segment” or “phrase member”), I believe students will better understand the logic and construction of melodies, which will aid them in creating their own music. This text is meant to take the student from the basics of reading and writing pitches and rhythms through twelve–tone technique and minimalism over the course of four semesters. Whenever possible, examples from popular music and music from film and musical theater are included to illustrate melodic and harmonic concepts, usually within the context of the phrase.

Contents:

1 Basic Concepts

2 Major Scales and Key Signatures

3 Minor Scales and Key Signatures

4 Basics of Rhythm

5 Intervals

6 Triads

7 Roman Numerals and Cadences

8 Seventh Chords

9 Harmonic Progression and Harmonic Function

10 Non-Chord Tones

11 Melodic Analysis

12 Form in Popular Music

13 Phrases in Combination

14 Accompanimental Textures

15 Creating Contrast Between Sections

16 Figured Bass

17 Secondary Dominant Chords

18 Secondary Diminished Chords

19 Mode Mixture

20 The Neapolitan Chord

21 Augmented Sixth Chords

22 Modulation

23 Enharmonic Modulation

24 Binary and Ternary Forms

25 Sonata and Rondo Forms

26 Voice Leading Triads

27 Voice Leading Seventh Chords

28 Voice Leading With Non-Chord Tones

29 Voice Leading Chromatic Harmonies

30 Introduction to Counterpoint

31 Introduction to Jazz Theory

32 Impressionism and Extended Tonality

33 Set Theory

34 Serialism

35 Minimalism

Notes:

Description based on online resource