Good books on Harmony?

[Shiva]

Hi all.

So I've seen Walter Pistons Harmony mentioned in this forum before. I also heard that it is a somewhat "heavy" read. What do you people think?
Also can you recommend any other good books on the subject of Harmony as well?

Thanks in advance

[stevel]

Originally Posted by Shiva

Hi all.

So I've seen Walter Pistons Harmony mentioned in this forum before. I also heard that it is a somewhat "heavy" read. What do you people think?
Also can you recommend any other good books on the subject of Harmony as well?

Thanks in advance

Shiva, it depends on if you want "academic" theory, or, "pop" theory.

The standard university texts (in the US at least) are:
Kostka/Payne "Tonal Harmony"
Aldwell/Schachter "Harmony" (or some similar title)
Piston "Harmony"
Schoenberg "Harmony" (or sim)

Of those, Piston is actually the most "readable" in terms of narrative style. Schoenberg is incredibly wordy and goes off on tangents (though part of this could be translation). K/P is excellent, though their approach is a little "rule-based" for some. A/S is nice, but there are some downright errors in there. But as readable as the K/P.

Other good ones are:
Rober Gauldin "Structural Functions in Tonal Music" (or sim)
Clendenning/Marvin "Musician's Guide to Music Theory (or sim)

Actually, I think the Gauldin is the best of everything, but no one text can cover it all - each of them use different approaches - so from that standpoint, it doesn't hurt to read all of them and gather what information you can from each. For example, many texts focus on structure - long term chord progression, while other focuse on voice-leading - how to get from chord A to chord B, etc. All of them have concepts that are pretty in depth - music theory and analysis is not an easy subject, however...

I've actually seen a "Music Theory for Dummies" book - I picked it up and basically it starts with the same stuff any college text does - you can't make it any easier!

Instead of those "hardcore" texts, there are books like Duckworth's "Essentials of Music" (or look for titles like "Basics of Music Theory",etc.). These usually cover more of the "descriptive" aspects of theory - naming chords, intervals, scales, keys, etc., and less analysis.

I've also seen many other books like "Alfred's Music Theory Course" for your typical student (like piano student) whose teacher uses a theory book to supplement lessons, but even though Alfred, Hal Leonard, Mel Bay, and all those have one, the best I've seen by far is the Master Theory series - it's graded to level. The only drawback of these is they're really elementary - it seems there's no middle ground between "this is a C", and "this is a tonic prolongation embellished with a tonicization of a chromatic mediant"!

I know you can check Amazon.com and you'll find many sort of "mid-level" books - I don't know how good any of them are - being a university professor I tend to use only those that are of that level. You might, if you're outside of the states - check with the major colleges and see what kind of texts they put out (usually by members of their own faculty) - for instance, I would be there's a theory book by a professor at Oxford, and one from Cambridge published by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press respectively. They still are going to be written at a university level though.

Ok, hope that helps.

Best,
Steve

[stevel]

Originally Posted by stevel

They still are going to be written at a university level though.

Oh, PS, I didn't mean that to sound like you couldn't read or understand a university level book or anything!

Steve

[Stenir]

I have both the Dummies' Music Theory and Composition books. For people picking up their pen, it's a good start. My thought after reading them was that you'd have the understanding you need to compose better than before. If you needed specifics over generalizations, then you'd at least know what you were looking for.

They're pretty good resources to start from.

[mducharme]

I learned from "Harmonic Materials in Tonal Music: A Programed Course" by Harder/Steinke. Because it's Programed, it's self-grading (in essence, there is an answer key for everything), so it's very very good for self study.

[Exen]

Harmony by Piston
Tonal Harmony by Kostka

Not to mention if you are similar to me I read orchestration books and analyze the material in there as well. To me it helps to see how other composers have constructed their harmonies across different families and whatnot.