Polyphonic Music Basics Tutorial

Author: Zhao Deyi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-12-01
Features: The Fundamentals of Polyphonic Music was carefully written with this in mind, striving to minimize the difficulties learners might encounter in polyphonic composition. The goal is to help learners master the technical essentials of counterpoint in a relatively short time and apply them in practical composition. This is the author's cherished aspiration. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1—Counterpoint, consists of ten chapters. It concisely explains the principles of writing contrapuntal melodies and various contrastive and imitative compositional techniques. This covers both simple and complex counterpoint, inversion and retrograde, as well as canon and transformed imitation. The focus of the training is placed on two-voice counterpoint, which is the foundation of polyphonic composition. Of course, three-voice and four-voice writing also occupy a significant portion in Part 1. As for polyphonic writing beyond four voices, it is entirely omitted because it is less commonly used. Part 2—Polyphonic Music Forms, consists of nine chapters. It focuses on analyzing the structural forms and compositional techniques of various contrastive polyphonic miniatures, canons, inventions, and fugues. The purpose is to address how counterpoint is applied in different polyphonic music forms. The last two chapters of Part 2 deal with heterophonic counterpoint and the application of polyphonic techniques in tonal music. The former is a folk-style polyphonic music form that is very common in composition and should not be overlooked by learners. The latter emphasizes the polyphonic elements in tonal textures, the alternation and synthesis of tonal and polyphonic textures, etc. After the two parts, there is an appendix titled Selected Exercises and Solutions. Generally speaking, the creative component in polyphonic exercises far outweighs that in harmonic exercises, though it is not easy to distinguish right from wrong, there is often a difference between good and bad. The so-called "solutions" cannot be "the only correct ones," but are merely provided as references for learners.