| Both sides previous revision Previous revision Next revision | Previous revision Next revisionBoth sides next revision |
| cherubini_counterpoint_and_fugue:title [2018/09/02 19:40] – brian | cherubini_counterpoint_and_fugue:title [2019/01/11 22:11] – brian |
|---|
| This digital edition is by [[http://bondari.com|Brian Bondari]]. | This digital edition is by [[http://bondari.com|Brian Bondari]]. |
| |
| Much of what I wrote in the Preface to [[bridges_counterpoint:contents|Counterpoint, by J. Frederick Bridge]] also applies to my work with Cherubini's monumental treatise. Unlike with Bridge's book on Counterpoint, which which I was unfamiliar until I stumbled across it in the summer of 2017, I had known about Cherubini's treatise since my days in graduate school. | Much of what I wrote in the Preface to [[bridges_counterpoint:contents|Counterpoint, by J. Frederick Bridge]] also applies to my work with Cherubini's monumental treatise. Unlike with Bridge's book on Counterpoint, with which I was unfamiliar until I stumbled across it in the summer of 2017, I had known about Cherubini's treatise since my days in graduate school. |
| |
| Though both cover the subject of counterpoint, the two books are quite different. While Bridge's primer focuses almost exclusively on //species// counterpoint, Cherubini's work is a contrapuntal //tour de force//, moving beyond the //species// and covering nearly every imaginable type of counterpoint. Indeed, I've never seen a more comprehensive coverage of //double counterpoint//. What also sets apart Cherubini's treatise is the inclusion of ten full fugues, each of which has been analysed with annotations so that the student can follow the construction of the work. | Though both cover the subject of counterpoint, the two books are quite different. While Bridge's primer focuses almost exclusively on //species// counterpoint, Cherubini's work is a contrapuntal //tour de force//, moving beyond the //species// and covering nearly every imaginable type of counterpoint. Indeed, I've never seen a more comprehensive coverage of //double counterpoint//. What also sets apart Cherubini's treatise is the inclusion of ten full fugues, each of which has been analysed with annotations so that the student can follow the construction of the work. |
| 2. Updated musical examples, complete with media players: | 2. Updated musical examples, complete with media players: |
| |
| **Updated musical examples**: Here's the fun part. There are 580 musical examples in this book, many of which would thoroughly confound 21st Century music students. The simple reason for this is that nearly all of them utilize an alto clef, a tenor clef, or both. Rarely have I encountered a student who could comfortable sight-read a four-part musical example containing four different clefs: //treble//, //alto//, //tenor//, and //bass//. For better or worse (probably worse), this is a skill that has been lost over the centuries. | **Updated musical examples**: Here's the fun part. There are 580 musical examples in this book, many of which would thoroughly confound 21st Century music students. The simple reason for this is that nearly all of them utilize an alto clef, a tenor clef, or both. Rarely have I encountered a student who could comfortably sight-read a four-part musical example containing four different clefs: //treble//, //alto//, //tenor//, and //bass//. For better or worse (probably worse), this is a skill that has been lost over the centuries. |
| |
| Every musical example in this new, digital edition now utilizes only treble and bass clefs. Ironically, by transcribing all of Cherubini's examples into these two "standard" clefs, my own familiarity and efficiency with the //alto// and //tenor// clefs has improved beyond my wildest dreams. | Every musical example in this new, digital edition now utilizes only treble and bass clefs. Ironically, by transcribing all of Cherubini's examples into these two "standard" clefs, my own familiarity and efficiency with the //alto// and //tenor// clefs has improved beyond my wildest dreams. |
| |
| Digitizing all the musical examples also provided me the opportunity to clean up some issues with the original scan, such as notes that were difficult to read. Surprisingly to me, I was also able to fix dozens of typographical errors, both in the music notation and in the prose. | Digitizing all the musical examples also provided me the opportunity to clean up some issues with the original scan, such as notes that were difficult to read. Surprisingly to me, I was also able to fix dozens of typographical errors, both in the musical notation and in the prose. |
| |
| The software that I used to engrave all the musical examples in this book is [[https://musescore.org|MuseScore]]. Though my students have been consistently using MuseScore for the last seven years or so, I've tended to cling to my beloved Finale(tm) for my own projects. So what, then, possessed me to switch to MuseScore for what at first seemed like an insurmountable number of musical examples in this book? | The software that I used to engrave all the musical examples in this book is [[https://musescore.org|MuseScore]]. Though my students have been consistently using MuseScore for the last seven years or so, I've tended to cling to my beloved Finale(tm) for my own projects. So what, then, possessed me to switch to MuseScore for what at first seemed like an insurmountable number of musical examples in this book? |
| * Upload all images and audio to my web-server (for sharing with the world) | * Upload all images and audio to my web-server (for sharing with the world) |
| |
| Thanks to scripting, once I engraved each individual example, I could simply move on to the next. After I completed all the examples in a single chapter, then it was time to run my script to automate all the tedious aspects of turning the scores into audio and images, | Thanks to scripting, once I engraved each individual example, I could simply move on to the next. After I completed all the examples in a single chapter, then it was time to run my script to automate all the tedious aspects of turning the scores into audio and images. |
| |
| **Media players**: The main advantage of this book is the addition of media players for each musical example. Textbooks on music, even so-called "modern" ones, lack the ability to play the musical examples straight from the page. Usually the process of hearing a musical example in a textbook involves fumbling with a CD/DVD, logging into a specific web portal from the publisher, or just giving up and searching the Internet. | **Media players**: The main advantage of this book is the addition of media players for each musical example. Textbooks on music, even so-called "modern" ones, lack the ability to play the musical examples straight from the page. Usually the process of hearing a musical example in a textbook involves fumbling with a CD/DVD, logging into a specific web portal from the publisher, or just giving up and searching the Internet. |