Music Talks with Children by Thomas Tapper

Author:Thomas Tapper [Tapper, Thomas & Lives, Blackmask]
Format: epub
Tags: Literature
ISBN: 9781406807684
Publisher: Echo Library
Published: 2006-09-25T20:39:33.352000+00:00

CHAPTER XIV. HARMONY AND COUNTERPOINT.

“Whilst I was in Florence, I did my utmost to learn the exquisite

manner of Michaelangelo, and never once lost sight of

it.”—Benvenuto Cellini.[43]

On any important music subject Schumann has something to say. So with this:

“Learn betimes the fundamental principles of harmony.” “Do not be afraid of the words theory, thorough-bass, and the like, they will meet you as friends if you will meet them so.”

We now begin to feel how definitely these rules treat everything. They pick out the important subjects and tell the simplest truth about them. The meaning of these two rules is this: From the beginning we must try to understand the grammar of music. Some of the great composers could in childhood write down music with the greatest fluency. Handel, even as a boy, wrote a new church composition for every Sunday. Mozart began to write music when less than five years old, and when he was yet a boy, in Rome, he wrote down a composition,[44] sung by the choir of the Sistine Chapel, which was forbidden to the public.

Harmony and counterpoint stand to music very much as spelling and grammar stand to language. They are the fundamentals of good writing and of good—that is, of correct—thinking in music. Harmony is the art of putting tones together so as correctly to make chords. Counterpoint has to do with composing and joining together simple melodies. A modern writer[45] on counterpoint has said: “The essence of true counterpoint lies in the equal interest which should belong to ever part.” By examining a few pieces of good counterpoint you will readily see just what this means. The composer has not tried to get merely a correct chord succession, such as we find in a choral. Let us play a choral; any good one of a German master will do.[46] We notice that the soprano is the principal part, and that the other voices, while somewhat melodic, tend rather to support and follow the melody than to be independent. If, now, we play a piece of counterpoint like the G-Minor Prelude by Bach,[47] we shall have quite a good piece of counterpoint, as far as separate melodies being combined is concerned. Let us play the voice-parts separately. We shall find equal melodic interest in each. The chords grow out of the music. Comparing this with the choral, the main difference between harmony and counterpoint should be clear to us. We shall observe that the three voices do not proceed in the same way. If one part moves quickly, as in the bass of the first two measures, the other parts are quieter; if the bass ceases to move rapidly some other voice will take up the motion, as we see in the third and following measures. As a general thing no two voices in contrapuntal writing move in the same way, each voice-part being contrasted with different note-values. This gives greater interest and makes each voice stand forth independently.

At first contrapuntal music may not seem interesting to us.

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