Reddit reviews Counterpoint in Composition: The Study of Voice Leading

Maybe you would enjoy Counterpoint and Composition, also by Schachter? It's in the same pedagogical tradition, but is about more long-range connections, rather than the chord-to-chord level.

Counterpoint in Composition: The Study of Voice Leading https://www.amazon.com/dp/023107039X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_SeVLzbHW29T65

The reason you can't find any is that you're searching for melody. Search for counterpoint instead. This is my favorite book to teach it from: http://www.amazon.com/Counterpoint-Composition-Study-Voice-Leading/dp/023107039X

Though the standard for the last ~300 years has been Fux's Gradus Ad Parsanum, which is now public domain. I myself learned from Knud Jeppesen's book, just called Counterpoint.

Also check out Thomas Benjamin's The Craft of Tonal Counterpoint.

Hey friend. You ask great questions!

The issue you’re having is a great illustration of why music conservatory training is so essential. You say you’re willing to dedicate much time and effort; have you considered enrolling in a composition program? There’s much, much more to this than reading a book (or watching some YouTube videos). Deep training in several overlapping fields – theory, aural skills, music history, instrumental performance, choral singing, keyboard skills, score study, composition, etc. – all contribute to developing high level composition & orchestration skills, regardless of your styles/genres of interest.

Anyway, one place you can start on your own would be to dig into a good counterpoint treatise. Counterpoint training is about the craft of melody and of combining individually-compelling melodies to create harmony. There are many great treatises/books spanning literally hundreds of years, and everyone will have their favorites.

Knud Jeppesen’s Counterpoint is fantastic; old-fashioned, but excellent for basic principles. You can find a pdf online easily. The Salzer & Schachter book is more modern and also great. Thorough, well-organized, and I’ve found it to be effective with students who don’t have very deep musical backgrounds at the outset.

Above all, have fun with it and dig deep. Sing and play (at the piano/keyboard) everything you study and write!

I would recommend going to your theory teacher's website/class website and look at what book they want you to get. This is a big sign of the approach the university will take in teaching from Theory I and upwards. This way, you will know the "common language" professors will use at your school regarding theory. What I mean are specifics, ranging from calling something an "accented passing tone" vs. making no distinctions between a regular passing tone, to various systems of abbreviations, and to differences in how the cadential "V^6/4 - V^7 - I" is viewed. Some people interpret this as " I^6/4 - V^7 - I." Basically, do you call a cadential^6/4 chord a V or a I chord? One use is not universal. Little clarifications like these, which can only been gleaned from your actual theory book, will make you better prepared and less confused on day one than learning one book's method, only to be presented with a completely different approach.

I think, given your background in theory, you will be surprised how far ahead you are compared to many people. A lot show up to their freshman year with a low level of theory competence.

I went to a university that used the Laitz textbook, so its about all I can recommend.

I've also been exposed to the Straus book for post-tonal theory.

For Species counterpoint, you can't beat the Schacter and Salzer book: "Counterpoint in Composition,"

For Schenkerian analysis, there is the Salzer book: "Structural Hearing." That is a bit more specialized, but it may pique your curiosity.

Great theorists like Felix Salzer and Carl Schacter, students of Heinrich Schenker, along with the acclaimed Steven Laitz, are good to learn about and be knowledgeable about. Looking into them, their associates, and their teachers can lead you to other good books.

If you want to go about it like the old masters, study counterpoint, which is basically the art of combining multiple melodies together to form harmony. Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven studied Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum for their basic training, but I would recommend a more updated method. I always tell people to get Salzer/Schachter's Counterpoint in Composition, which essentially modernizes species counterpoint, focusing on just major and minor modes (which is probably what you'll want to start with).

It might be good to pick up a copy of Kostka's Tonal Harmony to have around as a supplement. If you start from harmony, rather than counterpoint, your music is always going to be a little directionless and meandering.

The idea of being a "classical" composer today is a bit weird, in and of itself. From a historical perspective, we usually think of the Western European classical period being from 1750 to about 1825 or so. Clearly we are not living in that era now. This sub-reddit tends to lump in all Western "art music" (maybe roughly equivalent to notated polyphonic music) under the appellation "classical" as well, spanning from Perotin and Leonin writing some of the first polyphony at the Notre Dame cathedral in the 13th century to Kaija Saariaho's recent premiere in LA.

Western "art music" composers today, or composers of notated music indebted to the Western classical tradition, come in a huge variety of stylistic flavors, and they live in a huge variety of cultural ecosystems.

On one hand, you have composers in (and following) the German (Marxist) avant-garde, railing against the commodified nostalgia for Romanticism, completely breaking with tradition by abandoning everything, even pitch. On the other hand, you have an endless spiral of nostalgia plunderers, skillfully (even masterfully) dressing up the disinterred corpses of nineteenth century orchestral cliches as puppets to tell pastiche Hollywood tales. Is there a middle way between these extremes that is not totally bland? I hope so.

Hey there, - no, the book is by Salzer and Schacter, if memory serves!

Here it is: https://www.amazon.com/Counterpoint-Composition-Study-Voice-Leading/dp/023107039X

Counterpoint in Composition - Shadwell & Schachter.. Chapter 9 covers imitation.

There are some great books about writing melodies, but I would recommend starting to study counterpoint. Grab Fux's book and start there. Not only does he give great guidelines for learning to write counterpoint, but in the process, you start learning what makes up good melodies. From there, I would start looking at the Salzer book and applying those principles.

"Harmony" comes from counterpoint... Remember - Music theorists didn't start writing about functional harmony until the 19th century.

If you're going to be a music major in the fall, make damn sure that there's a counterpoint class on your roster. If there isn't, find someone in the department who can give you private instruction. If you're at all serious about composing, you must understand how counterpoint works. This book is basically my bible:

https://www.amazon.com/Counterpoint-Composition-Study-Voice-Leading/dp/023107039X