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At the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to:
1. Analyze and utilize borrowed chords, mode mixture, and chromatic mediants.
2. Identify, construct, and utilize Neapolitan and augmented-sixth chords.
3. Analyze and explain enharmonic spellings, reinterpretation, and modulation.
4. Identify, construct, and utilize ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords.
5. Analyze and utilize common-tone-diminished-seventh chords, simultaneities,
coloristic chord successions, and other harmonic devices.
6. Realize a figured bass line into a complete four-part arrangement utilizing these
harmonic devices.
7. Harmonize a given melody in four parts utilizing these harmonic devices.
8. Analyze, compare, and contrast the musical techniques of the late 19th and 20th centuries
including pandiatonicism, polytonality, set theory, serialism, and advanced concepts of
meter and rhythm.
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I. Music for Study and Analysis
Musical examples for this course will be drawn the common-practice literature of the Western
(European) tradition. Emphasis will be on music of the 19th and 20th century, particularly the
Romantic, Post-Romantic, Impressionist, Modern (post-tonal), and Postmodern styles.
II. Borrowed Chords and Mode Mixture
A. Borrowed chords in major
B. Scalar variants in minor
C. Revisiting the "Picardy third"
D. Modulations involving mode mixture
III. The Neapolitan Chord
A. Conventional use of the Neapolitan 6th
B. Other uses of the Neapolitan
IV. Augmented Sixth Chords
A. The interval of the augmented sixth
B. The Italian, French, and German augmented sixth chords
C. The "enharmonic" German sixth in major keys
D. Other bass positions and resolutions
E. Other uses of augmented sixth chords
V. Chromatic Mediants
A. Identifying and utilizing chromatic mediant chords
B. Key relationships with chromatic mediants
VI. Enharmonic Spellings and Modulations
A. Enharmonic spelling and reinterpretation
B. Common enharmonic chords
C. Modulation through enharmonic reinterpretation
VII. Further Elements of the Harmonic Vocabulary
A. Altered Dominant chords: #5 and b5
B. Ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords
C. Common-tone diminished seventh chords
D. "Simultaneities"
E. Linear ("coloristic") chord successions
F. Neo-Riemannian transformations and the Tonnetz
VIII. The Romantic and Post-Romantic Styles
A. Counterpoint and sequence
B. Prolongation of dominant harmony
C. Tonal ambiguity: the "Tristan Chord"
D. Other "signature" harmonies
IX. The Impressionist Style
A. Asian influence
B. Pentatonic scales, modes, and synthetic scales
C. Use of extended harmony
D. Embrace of parallelism
E. Blurred cadences and functional ambiguity
X. Modernism and Post-Tonal Theory
A. Polyharmony and Pandiatonicism
B. Quartal and secondal harmony
C. Advanced approaches to rhythm and meter
D. Principles of Set Theory
E. Serialism and twelve-tone music
XI. Musical Postmodernism
A. Total serialization vs. aleatoric (chance) music
B. Minimalism
C. New textures and expanded instrumental resources
D. Russolo's "Art of Noises"
E. "Musique Concrete" and electronic music
F. Microtonality and "sound mass"
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Music in Theory and Practice, Volume 1. 9th ed. Benward, Bruce and Saker, Marilyn. McGraw-Hill. 2015 (classic)
Tonal Harmony. 8th ed. Kostka, Stefan and Payne, Dorothy. McGraw-Hill. 2017
Instructor-prepared materials