Reddit reviews A Practical Approach to 18th Century Counterpoint, Revised Edition

In one of our FAQ topics, the study of counterpoint is mentioned in the top post. There, two series of books are recommended, each with a 16th century and an 18th century component.

• Robert Gauldin's A Practical Approach to xth-century Counterpoint (16th and 17th components)
  
  
• Peter Schubert's Modal Counterpoint: Renaissance Style and Baroque Counterpoint.
  
  These are really the two standards of counterpoint teaching today. Fux is often read as well, but I personally don't really recommend reading historical treatises as a first introduction to a basic concept. I've been taught from the Gauldin 18th century book and am about to teach from the Schubert Renaissance book. I think I would have to say that I prefer Schubert as a classroom textbook, but I'm honestly not entirely sure which one I would prefer as a self-study text.

>I know that during his time, Fux wrote his book on counterpoint, but Bach already mastered counterpoint long before it was published.

The following authors present species counterpoint over a century before Fux's Gradus ad parnassum (1725):

Lanfranco - 1532

Zarlino - 1558

Diruta - 1593

Zacconi - 1596

Banchieri - 1614

Bach, like most musicians of his time and place, also had extensive familiarity with thoroughbass. Joel Lester has a great discussion of these things and more in Compositional Theory in the Eighteenth Century. Also look into Robert Gauldin - A Practical Approach to 18th Century Counterpoint.

I think an important question you need to ask yourself (or at least clarify for us) is what kind of counterpoint would you like to write? Renaissance-style counterpoint or tonal counterpoint a la Bach? If the former, I would suggest something like Peter Schubert's Modal Counterpoint; if the latter, perhaps something like Kent Kennan's Counterpoint or Robert Gauldin's A Practical Guide to 18th Century Counterpoint

In either case, these books will present the basics of counterpoint, such as the consonances and proper voice leading, and then walk you through gradually more advanced techniques, elaborations, etc. to be able to write things in the style and give you a better understanding of what's going on in order to be able to analyze music.