Abstract
Four-voice writing exercises saturate music theory textbooks devoted to the common practice but play only a minor role in recent texts on the twentieth century. Intrigued by this dichotomy, I have gradually been incorporating more four-voice exercises into the twentieth-century portion of the core music theory course that I teach. I have found that the use of homophonic musical models throughout the undergraduate curriculum promotes continuity, thereby helping to connect the twentieth-century repertoire to its stylistic antecedents. The exercises also provide material for classroom singing, which helps students to connect aural experience to music-theoretic concepts. Further, students gain skill in the manipulation of the materials of extended tonal and atonal harmony, which improves analytic ability and prepares for composition.
Recommended Citation
Sallmen, Mark
(2006)
"Sound Experiments - The Use of Four-Voice Writing in the Study of Twentieth-Century Music,"
Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy: Vol. 20, Article 4.
Available at:
https://digitalcollections.lipscomb.edu/jmtp/vol20/iss1/4
