[Smt-talk] The Concept of Appoggiatura

[Daniel Roca]

> 
> 
> "Does the world really need another harmony book?" 

The only theorist's possible answer to this question is: "Of course! Mine!" ;-)

Now seriously, I think that the teacher's attitude towards the material is more important than the material itself (and could even replace it). 
That said, I don't know if Diether de la Motte's approach is well known in America. His "Harmony" (followed by his "Counterpoint") have a completely different point of view that most texbooks. It's point of departure is the multiplicity (not uniformity) of different harmonic languages in different epoches and styles, hence a reevaluation of all "rules" in a particular context. So the chapters are not "Triads", "The Dominant seventh chord", and so on, but "Renaissance Harmony", "Baroque harmony" and so on. And it even expands to 20th century harmony.

It uses the Riemanian chord analysis system (functional, no Roman numeral) and therefore offers a rather steep learning curve for many here in Spain, and I guess also in North America. And his conclusions, supported by analysis, can be disputed. But I find this approach brilliant and necessary. I think that harmony (and composition) teaching should be primarily based on analysis and context-dependent.

[Of course, I have "my own" textbook. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. But it is something different. It is in fact a compositional step-by-step guide on improvisation for beginners (for 14-16 year old music students) based on the analysis of musical works and I think it is not alike most texts. Rules are reduced to a minimum. The hope is that the student learns harmony  (melody, accompaniment, form, texture) along while he is busy composing. If anyone finds this interesting, i could send an excerpt. But it is only in Spanish, I must regret]

_________
Mark Twain: Haz siempre lo correcto. Esto gratificará a algunos, dejará atónitos al resto.

Daniel Roca
Músico
drocacan at gmail.com







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