The Frustration of Learning Counterpoint
This article talks about:
- My frustrations with learning counterpoint on my own from books
- Some facts and assumptions about learning counterpoint
- My first counterpoint lesson (hint: it involves your input to make it work)
Counterpoint Books
Music theory books can be a frustrating thing. Sometimes you come across a gem, that explains things well and is easy to read. For instance, when I first started reading William Caplin’s Classical Form, it was like a lightbulb going off in my head. Everything was clear and concise. After each chapter, I felt as if I walked away knowing more than the previous chapter.
Ah, if they could all be that way.
But now I am trying to teach myself counterpoint and unfortunately, things have not been so clear and concise. Trying to teach yourself counterpoint can cause you to run into several issues.
- Counterpoint is, at first glance, a technique that hasn’t been actively developed since around Bach’s time. Now, it has been used, and learned, but in terms of the pedagogy involved, many people still recommend using Johann Fux’s book. I get it! Bach learned from it, and so did Beethoven and Mozart and blah blah blah… I am sure with the combined brain power of the world, we can come up with some newer techniques.
- Newer books are written for people who are clearly studying at a university or with an experienced teacher. I can’t blame the authors for this. Most, if not all, are professors at major universities. This doesn’t help the man on the street.
- There are two different styles of counterpoint: Modal and Tonal. This causes problems as well, because the modal guys don’t really say how this is applicable to anything other than writing in the style of Palestrina. My gut feeling is that is not true, and I can think of one moment in Mahler’s 6th Symphony in which he is clearly using modal counterpoint to great beauty and effect. The tonal guys seem to be a bit more applicable to the kind of music I want to write, but there is not an integrated approach.
So where to begin?
Assumptions and Facts
In the army, we have a specific way of approaching planning. I won’t get into all the nitty gritty details, it can be extremely boring. One of the key features is we would list out our assumptions about an operation and the facts as we knew them, so lets do that.
Facts
- Counterpoint has been used by many composers, if not all of the greats, since Bach’s time. This will, I believe, continue to be true.
- Modal counterpoint is about the melody.
- Tonal counterpoint is about… the melody. If melody is not king, then you might as well just write block chords, right?
Assumptions
- Counterpoint is hard. Seems pretty obvious, but I am not too sure how factual it is. I am assuming it is hard because that is what I have been brought up to believe. But like most things, I think it will just involve practice and clear principles.
- The early stages won’t be very fun. I think this is usually true of most things that are worthwhile.
- The books will only take me about 10% of the way towards understanding. Most of the gains in knowledge will be from actually composing.
- Good skills in voice leading and harmony are key.
- The two leading figures in Counterpoint are Bach and Palestrina. I say this as an assumption, because there are about a million composers that I have not actually listened too, and I may enjoy someone else’s counterpoint.
So What?
Glancing back over the list, there are a few things I wrote, that I think can guide me on my plan.
The Books Will Only Take Me About 10% of the Way
As stated earlier, the books I have been reading are missing a key ingredient… a teacher. I could go out and find a teacher, but that defeats the purpose of this site, which is to help people along the way of teaching themselves to compose.
I think others reading about my struggle and hopefully finding the right path will help in their own struggles.
It’s About the Melody
For both modal and tonal counterpoint, it is really about the melodies. Their shape, figures, and overall sound make the piece. For modal counterpoint, it seems pretty obvious, as harmony as we know it didn’t really exist when modal counterpoint was being developed. Tonal counterpoint though is a tougher case, because the harmony is clearly very important. Still, the melody is what ties it all together, not the harmony.
Knowledge of Harmony and Voice Leading
To get by, knowledge of harmony and voice leading will be crucial, but I cannot assume that everyone has been through a year’s worth of undergraduate harmony and voice leading courses. Anyways, I am so rusty with realizing my figured bass, that it will be as if I never took the courses anyway.
The Early Stages Won’t Be Fun
If you have read any literature on becoming an expert, you will have heard about the 10,000 rule. This basically states that to become an expert, you will have to practice your chosen field for about 10,000 hours. The key ingredient in this is deliberate practice of difficult tasks that create specific improvement. That means that what you have to do should improve something specifically, or else you won’t really improve.
For instance, an amateur golfer goes to the driving range to improve his swing and hits 1oo balls. A professional golfer goes to the driving range to improve the way his left hand turns during his backswing, and hits 1000 balls.
I am trying to approach improving my composition skills in the same way.
This means the exercises probably won’t be particularly fun. They will also be repeatable and will have clear guidelines for improvement.
Lesson 1
With that last line being out there, my first lesson for myself and you will actually be kind of fun. I am going to track down more great counterpoint composers beyond just Palestrina and Bach.
One of the key’s to great composing, is becoming a great listener. If you never hear the possibilities, you’ll be stuck.
I will start off the list, but you, my loyal readers out there should help me expand it.
I am creating a playlist on youtube. If you leave a link in the comments section, i’ll add it to the playlist.
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About Jon
Song without words # 1 is great. I like it very much. Michelle
Hey! I love your site. I wish everyone as knowledgeable as yourself was as helpful. Also, I’m far from an expert on Counterpoint, but, I think a great example is Pachelbel’s Canon in D, as it (I think) delves into traditional canon writing, as well as chord articulation, and the different species of counterpoint. Furthermore, on youtube someone posted an introduction to counterpoint series of videos and a video on fugue writing, which may be helpful if you decide to add a chapter on counterpoint in the ebook you’re working on.
the channel is: http://www.youtube.com/user/artofcounterpoint/videos
Added Canon in D to the playlist.
I’ll check out the video series. Thanks.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Theodopolis I recently came across this channel. He has recordings of Marcel Dupre improvising a passacaglia and fugue, and a passacaglia and double fugue. I think that it’d be helpful for composers to understand that (at least for me) many of their best musical ideas come from improvising.
Also, another recently discovered gem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epccUf3tMWo The fugue that constitutes this movement is powerful and moving (and teaches that fugues can be effective musical devices to convey emotions (something I never realized)). Keep up the good work with this awesome site.
Jeremy
Hi , I was googling 20th century ctp and I came across this blog. I am also a composer teaching myself but I did go. To college and studied ctp and still have no glue in how to use it in my own music. I studied bach s ctp and I recently became curious about rebsissancd ctp because of the way it glows freely it seems more free. There is a good book by r o Morris that gives really good hints but it’s not the same as studying with a teacher. A good teacher I mean , they are scarce. I don’t like Palestrina because he came after the counter reformation I prefer josquin desprez , Victoria, Thomas Tallis , hildegsrd of bingen. English composers were masters of rhythmic intricacy In the music. I also like Marin marais a lot. His Pieces for viola da gsmva go right to your soul.
Thanks Sami. I’ll check them out.
It is comforting to know that Haydn is said to have studied counterpoint without a teacher. He laboriously worked through Fux’s book ensuring he had mastered everything. If Haydn could do it, we all can if we work hard!
I am currently working through the exercises in the Gradus- and it is going better than i thought it would. However, I am not sure how I can use all the strict rules in my compositions.
Michael,
Thanks for the encouragement. I have to admit, I put the counterpoint down for a while. But I am back at it in full force. I am using several books, to try and get different viewpoints. First, Fux is on the reading list, because I figure if it was good enough for Bach, Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart, not to mention tons of others, then it is good enough for me. Something about the Socratic way it is written is just appealing to me.
Next, is Jeppesen’s book, “Counterpoint”. What I am finding is it takes about two readings per section to really get down to the meat of what is being said. Finally, I am rounding it out with “A Practical Approach to 16th Century Counterpoint” by Robert Gauldin. He doesn’t take a species approach, so it is just a different point of view.
As far as practical goes, the Fux is simplest, in terms of the way he describes things, which lets you get down to practicing more counterpoint. But Jeppesen’s book is great for really understanding the style of Palestrina. I plan on doing a big post about my progress in a little while.
I am on the journey of self study myself and I found Fux a great resource in learning counterpoint. As others have said if it was good enough for the masters it is good enough for me. I also have done some work with Counterpoint in Composition by Saltzer and Schachter. It is nice to find others who are one the self study path.
Hey Rich,
I am finding more and more value, in releasing one rule at a time, and learning by making mistakes. I actually purchased a program recently called Counterpointer. You can check it out at http://www.ars-nova.com/cp/. Originally, when I bought it, I found it a little frustrating, and felt the process of counterpoint wasn’t really sticking in. After using it for a while now, I find that it is really helping a lot, because it immediately points out your mistakes.
I’ve looked at the Salzer book and I would love to get it, but I am forcing myself on an information diet, because I tend to get too many books on a subject and not really absorb any of them.
I came across this website googling “the best counterpoint method” and found it fascinating. I wasn’t aware there were so many people around who actually tried to learn composition (formal composition) on their own, sounds like relief to me
I’m learning both harmony and counterpoint simultaneously at the moment and though it involves some serious brain damage it also helps a lot to develop some kind of sixth sense for knowing how to apply that knowledge in your compositions and not get stuck in the theory, which is, I guess, what happens to a great majority of students. It kinda works out for me.
Here’s some of the books I read (most of them for the 100th time):
“Tratado Primero: De la armonía” – D. Hilarion Eslava (don’t know if there’s a translation for that one)
“Practical Manual Of Harmony” – Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
and for counterpoint (as well as harmony) I found what I consider the best method: Michel Baron. Google Michel Baron’s website and you’ll find lots of articles as well as complete lessons for Harmony, Counterpoint, Orchestration, etc. They are available in various languages and for harmony it focuses his excercises in Henri Challan’s “380 basses et chants donnés”.
I’ve somehow managed to pull some serious 4-part florid into a couple of harpsichord sonatas that I’m writing. It’s very hard to get the counterpoint to work in an otherwise or previously non-contrapunctual piece of music like some of the best Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas. It’s even harder in my case I think, because I started studying “real” music very recently and I’m 25 years old. So in addition to my harmony and counterpoint studies I have to keep up with my reading and writing skills as well as my keyboard playing skills which are both superficial. Good news is that I’m doing all that by myself, I never took one lesson in my life. Before falling in love with music I only played electric guitar, also self-taught. Greetings from Uruguay!
its good to see some other people in the same boat as me!
Its good for me as well. I am still chugging along slowly but surely on counterpoint, but so far, I haven’t made any breakthroughs yet, to where I feel I can really talk about it with any authority. When I do, believe me, you will hear about it.