"Beginning with music fundamentals, The Complete Musician covers all the topics necessary for a thorough understanding of undergraduate music theory by focusing on music in context. Rather than rote learning of concepts and memorizing terms, The Complete Musician emphasizes how theory informs the work of performers. Composers respond not only to their instincts, experiences, and training in every work they write; they also follow certain ideals and models when appropriate, and modify them to fit their own personal vision. Theory is not a ""theoretical"" activity; it is a living one that responds to how music is composed and performed. Understanding how theory intersects with composition and performance is key to seeing its relevance to students' wider musical lives. The Complete Musician makes this connection."
Preface Part 1: The Foundations of Tonal Music Chapter 1A: Musical Space Chapter 1B: Musical Time: Pulse, Rhythm, and Meter Chapter 2: Harnessing Space and Time: Introduction to Melody and Two-Voice Counterpoint Chapter 3: Musical Density: Triads, Seventh Chords, and Texture Part 2: Merging Melody and Harmony Chapter 4: When Harmony, Melody, and Rhythm Converge Chapter 5: Tonic and Dominant as Tonal Pillars and Introduction to Voice Leading Chapter 6: The Impact of Melody, Rhythm, and Meter on Harmony; Introduction to V7; and Harmonizing Florid Melodies Chapter 7: Contrapuntal Expansions of Tonic and Dominant: Six-Three Chords Chapter 8: More Contrpuntal Expansions: Inversions of V7, Introduction to Leading-Tone Seventh Chords, and Reduction and Elavoration Part 3: A New Harmonic Function, The Phrase Model, and Additional Melodic and Harmonic Embellishments Chapter 9: The Pre-Dominant Function and the Phrase Model Chapter 10: Accented and Chromatic Embellishing Tones Chapter 11: Six-Four Chords, Revisiting the Subdominant, and Summary of Contrapuntal Expansions Chapter 12: The Pre-Dominant Refines the Phrase Model Part 4: New Chords and New Forms Chapter 13: The Submediant: A New Diatonic Harmony, and Further Extensions of the Phrase Model Chapter 14: The Mediant, the Back-Relating Dominant, and a Synthesis of Diatonic Harmonic Relationships Chapter 15: The Period Chapter 16: Other Small Musical Structures: Sentences, Double Periods, and Modified Periods Chapter 17: Harmonic Sequences Part 5: Functional Chromaticism Chapter 18: Applied Chords Chapter 19: Tonicization and Modulation Chapter 20: Binary Form and Variations Part 6: Expressive Chromaticism Chapter 21: Modal Mixture Chapter 22: Expansion of Modal Mixture Harmonies: Chromatic Modulation and the German Lied Chapter 23: The Neapolitan Chord (bII) Chapter 24: The Augmented Sixth Chord Part 7: Large Forms: Ternary, Rondo, Sonata Chapter 25: Ternary Form Chapter 26: Rondo Chapter 27: Sonata Form Part 8: Introduction to Nineteenth-Century Harmony: The Shirt from Asymmetry to Symmetry Chapter 28: New Harmonic Tendencies Chapter 29: Melodic and Harmonic Symmetry Combine: Chromatic Sequences Part 9: Twentieth and Twenty-First-Century Music Chapter 30: Vestiges of Common Practice and the Rise of a New Sound World Chapter 31: Noncentric Music: Atonal Concepts and Analytical Methodology Chapter 32: New Rhythmic and Metric Possibilities, Ordered PC Relations, and Twelve-Tone Techniques Appendices Appndix 1: Invertible Counterpoint, Compound Melody, and Implied Harmonies Appendix 2: The Motive Appendix 3: Additional Harmonic-Sequence Topics Appendix 4: Abbreviations and Acronyms Appendix 5: Selected Answers to Textbook Exercises Glossary Index
Steven G. Laitz is chair of the Music Theory and Analysis department at The Juilliard School and Professor of Music Theory at the Eastman School of Music. He serves as Director of the Gail Boyd de Stwolinski Center for Music Theory Pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma and Executive Editor of Music Theory Pedagogy Online.
Reviews for The Complete Musician: An Integrated Approach to Theory, Analysis, and Listening
This text is comprehensive, extremely thorough, and sophisticated. - Jeffrey Loeffert, Oklahoma State University The Complete Musician provides a more holistic approach to theory than other texts. This text will absolutely help students' performing abilities and how they approach and understand music. - Alex Nohai-Seaman, Suffolk County Community College I love teaching out of The Complete Musician. - Don Traut, University of Arizona The best book on the market. It has a superior balance of basic and complex concepts, terms, exercises, and examples. - Peter Susser, Columbia University
