The Great Composer As Teacher and Student: Theory and Practice of Composition

Mann, Alfred

ISBN 10: 048628316X / ISBN 13: 9780486283166

Published by Dover Pubns, 1994

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Great Composer As Teacher and Student: Theory and Practice of Composition
• Publisher: Dover Pubns
• Publication Date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 048628316X
• ISBN 13: 9780486283166
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

In this ground-breaking book, musicologist Alfred Mann weaves documentary evidence of six great composers as students and teachers into a convincing study that reveals a basic incongruity between traditional musical theory and actual musical practice. The opening chapter of The Great Composer as Teacher and Student recounts how traditional disciplines of harmony and counterpoint were formed. The closing chapter exposes the skeptical attitude with which these disciplines were eventually viewed by many composers. In between are fascinating in-depth close-ups, complete with musical examples, of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert teaching and learning. We meet the great Bach teaching principles of part-writing. We follow Handel's lessons for Princess Anne, which are fully reproduced. We observe Mozart's classical studies in polyphony. For the very first time we see full documentation of Beethoven's studies in counterpoint with Haydn, including his homework—an extraordinary moment in musical history when both teacher and student were men of genius. Finally, we follow Schubert in his studies with Salieri and in his famous lesson with Sechter on the fugal answer. Illustrated with 63 musical examples and many lessons and studies, this outstanding book offers an unusual perspective on musical pedagogy and tantalizing glimpses of what it was like to study with music's greatest masters. Importantly, it reveals the extent to which a number of major composers transcended the bounds of existing musical theory.