[Smt-talk] Realizing a figured bass in the curriculum

[Ildar Khannanov]

Dear List,

Quote: Speaking of personal experience, I was about 12 or 13 when studying
FB. Before that, I think I considered myself rather fluent in ”harmonizing
melodies” at the piano, but this was the first time I started to understand
that chords are not just concatenated chunks, i.e., that there is a such
thing as voice leading.  Väisälä Olli. End of quote.

Voice leading IS an aspect of the art of harmonization of unfigured melody.
It has always been a part of harmonization, together with many other
important aspects. Voice leading cannot be detached from the theory of
harmony (Rameau) and taught separately or on the examples of so-called
figured bass *theory* or so-called *species* counterpoint (both—figments of
imagination and revisionism).  I seriously doubt that someone can “consider
himself or herself rather fluent in ”harmonizing melodies” if he or she
understands it solely as “concatenated chunks.” Perhaps, this is the result
of poor pedagogy and not the deficiency of the method as such.

Quote: First, of course, I ask my students to realize a figured bass. At
early levels, I find this more useful than setting a soprano line. It
removes the element of deciding what chord goes where (which I handle in a
different fashion). And it allows me to concentrate on voice leading.
Murray Dineen. End of quote. This is a recipe for disaster, a case of bad
pedagogy.  A student cannot apply his or her “knowledge of voice leading”
before he or she becomes capable of hearing which chord to choose under a
melodic tone. This has been advised by Fetis in his textbook on harmony and
a slew of other teachers of harmony. Otherwise your students will have to
memorize mechanical connections of notes without making any musical sense.
Augentheorie, so to speak.



Quote: As an example, voice leading, which is usually carried out in a
written context, comes to life as a genuine musical experience when it is
played at the keyboard as one realizes a figured-bass example. Rick Nelson.
End of quote. This is much better, yet simply tickling the keys without
understanding and hearing tonal-functional syntax will turn your students
into semi-professionals.


Best wishes,


Ildar Khannanov

Peabody Institute

drkhannanov at gmail.com

2014-12-14 2:34 GMT-05:00 Väisälä Olli <olli.vaisala at uniarts.fi>:
>
> Darryl White wrote:
>
> >
> > Figured bass realizations, with few exceptions, are of little value
> except to historians (including historians of theory). Skills that are more
> widely practiced today are harmonization of a melody and
> realization/improvisation on a chord progression. I've never been asked by
> an employer to realize a figured bass as a composer, arranger, or performer.
> >
> > If we are considering updating the theory curriculum, it's items like
> this that require review.
> >
>
> Seems straightforward, but should curriculums be based on such a
> straightforward logic? Of course, all this depends on what kind of
> institution and department you are teaching in and what are its goals.
> Nevertheless, there are certainly reasons to argue that FB studies have
> much more general significance than only for historians.
>
> Practicing FB directly buttresses one’s understanding of the
> harmony–voice-leading technique of more than 200 years’ era of art music.
> How lightly should this be dispensed with?
>
> More generally, practicing FB (or species counterpoint, or other things an
> employer may not ask one to do) may very effectively sensitize the student
> to musical phenomena he/she would not be otherwise aware.
>
> Speaking of personal experience, I was about 12 or 13 when studying FB.
> Before that, I think I considered myself rather fluent in ”harmonizing
> melodies” at the piano, but this was the first time I started to understand
> that chords are not just concatenated chunks, i.e., that there is a such
> thing as voice leading. I vividly remember how this intensified my
> relationship to – a Chopin waltz. Hence, FB studies certainly bore on my
> performing music, and not only music of the actual FB era. (Undoubtedly
> they also affected my composition, but that’s a more complicated issue.)
>
> Olli Väisälä
> Sibelius Academy
> University of the Arts, Helsinki
> olli.vaisala at uniarts.fi
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