Links

general musicianship

A few sight-singing books which I have used and loved were: More Sight Singing books at Sheet Music Plus.

The AB Guide to Music Theory by Eric Taylor. Very good basic theory books; Part I covers all the rudiments thoroughly, Part II covers basic harmony & counterpoint, instruments, modes & modern developments.
There are 8 workbooks by Taylor to accompany the AB Guides.

Preparatory Exercises in Score Reading by R. O. Morris

theory tutorials and drills

http://www.auburn.edu/~schafwr/theorybasics.html
Auburn University's theory department has provided several pages of traditional paper-based drills (and answers) covering intervals and chords. Required knowledge for entry level college students. The site recommends Scales, Intervals, Keys, Triads, Rhythm, and Meter: (Third Edition)

A series of podcast lectures on species counterpoint given by Dr. Thomas Bergeron at Western Oregon University. These are interesting, the students ask questions, Dr. Bergeron plays piano, etc.

MusicTheory.com has lots of very nice free Java applet music drills, including one for first species counterpoint.

http://www.dolmetsch.com/theoryintro.htm
Comprehensive set of music pages covering theory and more (a great deal about the Dolmetsch family). Maintained by Dr. Brian Blood. This site also sells recorders, early music instruments, & sheet music.

http://http://www.ars-nova.com
Ars Nova Software sells Counterpointer, a counterpoint training program, and other music software.

http://www.teoria.com/
Music Theory Web has about a half a dozen (free) interactive applications written in Flash.

http://www.emusictheory.com/practice.html
eMusic Theory provides 8 simple music drills, delivered as Java applets. For example, the interval drill presents a random note on a stave, names an interval, and requires the user to enter the note which completes that interval. The user is timed and a percentage of correct answers is displayed.

http://www.musictheory.net/
Ricci Adams’ music theory pages have free Flash applications, covering intervals, chords, etc.

http://www.oconnormusic.org/music.htm#educate
The O’Connor Music Studio has some interesting links and articles, and it has a free chord demonstrator application.

http://www.mibac.com/
Music Instruction By A Computer. Commercial software for teaching music theory and ear training.

http://www.musicdials.com/theory.html
This site has a page about chords, which includes some charts.

sites with some information about Fux

http://www.hoasm.org/XID/Fux.html
Brief (two paragraphs) biography of the man.

http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/msj4/bulletin/v43/kiso-e.html
A few more paragraphs about his work.

http://newolde.tripod.com/fux.htm
Links to an essay on Fux, online MIDI renditions of some of his compositions, & links to other recordings of Fux's compositions.

University of Texas at Austin
Has some information for its counterpoint class contrasting Fux with other theorists.

links to Palestrina sites

Recordings of Palestrina compositions for sale at Amazon.

http://www.grainger.de/music/composers/palest.html
links to recordings, books, sheet music, pictures.

http://www.naxos.com/composer/palestri.htm
Two paragraph biography

http://www.dovesong.com/positive_music/archives/renaissance/palestrina.asp
Short biographical essay, and link to online .mp3 recordings.

http://www.geometry.net/detail/composers/palestrina_giovanni.html
A page with a half dozen short biographies of Palestrina, and links to books.

counterpoint books

The Study of Counterpoint from Gradus Ad Parnassus.

The Study of Fugue by Alfred Mann. In addition to the second part of Fux's text from Gradus Ad Parnassus, this book includes sections from other classic texts on fugue, by Marpurg (who wrote the preface to the 2nd edition of J.S. Bach's Art of Fugue), Martini (who taught Mozart), & Albrecthsberger (who taught Beethoven).

Preliminary Exercises in Counterpoint by Arnold Schoenberg (Faber & Faber Ltd) Like Models for Beginners in Composition & Structural Functions of Harmony this book was developed by Schoenberg while teaching at the University of California.

Counterpoint, by Gordon Jacob; Part Two from Harmony, Counterpoint & Improvisation Book 1, editor Sir George Dyson (Novello)

Counterpoint: The Polyphonic Vocal Styles of the Sixteenth Century, by Knud Jeppesen, trans. Glen Haydon (Prentice-Hall Inc.)

Counterpoint by Walter Piston, thoroughly examines contrapuntal technique in the 18th & 19th centuries; one of the standard textbooks.

more countepoint books at Amazon.

miscellaneous links

Inkscape is an excellent free open source vector graphics editor.

Lilypond is an excellent free open source music typesetting program. A little difficult to learn to use, but the results are professional.

MuseScore is another fine free open source music notation editor. More limited than Lilypond but much easier to learn since it's WYSIWYG.

http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/harmony/pyth.html
Comprehensive article (set of pages) about the mathematical basis of Pythagorean tuning.

http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/harmony/13c.html
Good article on 13th century polyphony and its treatment of dissonance.

http://www.contrapunctus.com/contrapunctus.htm
The Counterpoint Site - more counterpoint information.

http://www.merlot.org
Merlot is a collection of links to online learning materials for a variety of subjects; the links are reviewed by Merlot's panel of academics.

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