Species Counterpoint?

[FMiguelez]

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Hello.
I've been approached to teach music part-time. One of the classes I'd teach is counterpoint. They use the strict Species method.
The thing is that this is not the way I learnt counterpoint. I studied a book that is VERY nice, and it uses a much less pedantic and much more musical method, by looking at what Bach did, with this very nice book by Benjamin:

http://www.amazon.com/Craft-Tonal-Count ... 0415943914

Could you recommend a GREAT book on Species counterpoint?
Which ones would it be the typical college text for this?
I suppose I'll have to brush up on it!
I want to make sure that I'd be able to teach using their method... but I would still try to make it as little pedantic as possible for the students. It's all about writing nice lines after all...

What are these Species anyway? Are they like rules for moving voices? How many are they?

We wrote Inventions and Fugues back at college, and we never used this species approach...

Thanks!

[Frodo]

What are these Species anyway? Are they like rules for moving voices? How many are they?

Species counterpoint is a very rule-laden academic method of teaching the concept of counterpoint, mainly to beginners.

Each "species" represents one very basic aspect of putting one voice against another with a very rigid set of rules which govern voice leading, horizontal and vertical intervallic restrictions, and so on.

There are four main species, each representing a specific rhythmic juxtaposition which, in turn, have an increasing impact on passing tones, appoggiaturas, what counter lines are acceptable or unacceptable, etc. Each species becomes increasingly complex in true academic form. There is a fifth species of sorts which stops just short of being free counterpoint in that it combines elements from the first four species into one "chapter" of study.

The hard part about finding "the best" book on the topic may hinge on how many visual examples are used where verbal descriptions may lack. One special consideration for you might be whether or not such a text would be available in Spanish. This *might* open up more literary options for you, since this is a European discipline. There was a time when higher education was rendered in Latin, so finding such texts in various Latin-based languages could prove to be more abundant and varied.

The book you cited seems to focus on "tonal" counterpoint, but there is a companion book on "modal" counterpoint. In the original tradition, species counterpoint is generally taught in all the modes (except for those cited which were not considered musically feasible at the time).

I would also consider this:

http://www.amazon.com/Counterpoint-Spec ... =1-1-spell

You may want to take a look at the Johann Fux book "Gradus ad Parnassum" since he was the guy who popularized the teaching method.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

"Counterpoint in Composition" was a popular one and the one I had one teacher use in conjunction with the Bach Riemenschneider.

http://www.amazon.com/Counterpoint-Comp ... 023107039X

http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Riemenschnei ... B000B5H4EY

I came across this one in my personal library this past week. © 1876 G. Schirmer

Don't recall it specifically now, but I'll be sure to thumb through it this weekend.

[FMiguelez]

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Frodo:
You are a Master of great, concise information
You gave me such a good overview in just a few words!

So, would it be accurate to think of this as just another (more methodic) approach to teach the same thing?
I mean, the overall principles are always the same, right?



MLC:
What a nice book! The age-color make it look even more interesting (1876!)

I just zoomed in all I could to read the TOC, and, believe it or not, the head titles instantly reminded me of the species in a JAZZ context... so we took species counterpoint for Jazz but not for traditional music (we used the Benjamin for that).

Thanks for the links. I'll check them out.

I'll try to make them learn and absorb this in a way that is not too boring or intimidating. I think that by just studying and looking at out-of-context short examples and exercises, it's very easy to forget about the whole picture... and the flow of the music, and lose track of what the real aim of counterpoint is. So I guess one must remember to "zoom-in" and "zoom-out" often.
Balance, I suppose.

This should be fun

[Frodo]

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So, would it be accurate to think of this as just another (more methodic) approach to teach the same thing?

I mean, the overall principles are always the same, right?

The "principles" might be the same, but the rules are what's important. One thing about Bach's writing is that his mastery of counterpoint went further than how he simply obeyed the rules. His genius is in how he managed to *bend* those rules as well. Something which my be entirely acceptable in Bach's music might not abide by the strict rules of species counterpoint.

It's almost like asking what the differences are between Trig-Algebra and Calculus.

[FMiguelez]

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So, would it be accurate to think of this as just another (more methodic) approach to teach the same thing?

I mean, the overall principles are always the same, right?

The "principles" might be the same, but the rules are what's important. One thing about Bach's writing is that his mastery of counterpoint went further than how he simply obeyed the rules. His genius is in how he managed to *bend* those rules as well. Something which my be entirely acceptable in Bach's music might not abide by the strict rules of species counterpoint.

You are so right about Bach! He was a genius!

When I was little I was afraid of him
My piano teacher used to organize, frequently, these little concerts with the family members of all his students. Once a year he rented this real concert hall and we played "real" concerts, and he insisted to have our repertoire chronologically played. That meant we ALWAYS had to START with Bach!
I always felt Bach was not appropriate to be one's opening piece... the nerves were too high to control one's hands, fingers were cold, it was too intricate and difficult (many notes, many voices, tricky fingerings)... I always wanted to start with something much easier to calm the nerves first!
Those Kleine Preludes and Fugues were tough for a nervous little boy!


Regarding the Species Counterpoint... I have until January to learn them well and incorporate that with what I already know with the method I took. Hopefully it will be a good thing to have both methods. I'll strive to fulfill their course requirements while still being able to make them NOT lose sight of the big picture... I better start pronto

BTW, this is my favorite Fugue of ALL. It's such a MASTER PIECE! (starts at 6:07)
CutTime had given me a link with a better performance, also by Gould, but they took it down...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mVqAbdU ... L&index=12

[Movies]

I second Frodo's suggestion of Fux's Study of Counterpoint from his Gradus ad Parnassum. It really does present a very methodical approach to analyzing and discussing the subject. I haven't cracked it open for years, but just looking at the contents here at my desk, it seems to be exactly what you need. The only other book I have is Walter Piston's "Counterpoint," which reads exactly how you'd think a book on counterpoint by Walter Piston would read.

I'd be interested to know precisely what period the musical examples will be taken from, on the whole, or if you get to choose your own.

It's been a long time since I hammered out the particulars of this stuff in a formal environment, but as I recall, a distinction is definitely made between -- and maybe I have this wrong here -- the more modal 16th Century style and the complex melodic style of the 18th Century. Frodo, this is perhaps the distinction that you were making?

My memory tells me that 16th century counterpoint is rife with a specialized, intense group of symbols that are very detailed and take a while to get the hang of -- then again, my memory also tells me that I was popular in high school, so who knows!

[Phil O]

Hey FM,
Here are a couple things I had bookmarked. I don't know if they'd be useful.

http://www.listeningarts.com/music/gene ... s/menu.htm
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/classes/ ... ecies.html
http://ntoll.org/article/species-counterpoint

Phil

[MIDI Life Crisis]

BTW, this is my favorite Fugue of ALL. It's such a MASTER PIECE! (starts at 6:07)

You can hear the Vivaldi influences very clearly in that fugue. One of my teachers used to say "we make students read Bach when they've been bad!" I never understood why they would reward bad behavior but I've been bad ever since. Very bad

[FMiguelez]

Something which my be entirely acceptable in Bach's music might not abide by the strict rules of species counterpoint.

I'll definitely keep this in mind. It seems key here.

Thanks for such knowledgeable answers!

[Frodo]

It's been a long time since I hammered out the particulars of this stuff in a formal environment, but as I recall, a distinction is definitely made between -- and maybe I have this wrong here -- the more modal 16th Century style and the complex melodic style of the 18th Century. Frodo, this is perhaps the distinction that you were making?

Yes, but modality is only part of it. The rules of voice leading changed over the years. For example, at one point certain intervals (like the tritone) were banned in various types of religious chant because they were considered to be satanic. For as unusual as that may seem to modern thinking, it had a big influence on the sound and style and the rules of what was acceptable or unacceptable.

Music before 1600 was really rather simple where voice leading and counterpoint were concerned. Bach was the embodiment of the High Baroque era. If one wanted to draw a parallel between baroque music and baroque art , one might notice an abundance of ornamentation where structures are highly decorated. Accommodating all those extra notes and embellishments necessitated rules to help keep them from being, at the very least, *uncharacteristically* gratuitous where some would argue that such embellishments became excessive. Again-- art and music parallel as the French Rococo style utilized such embellishments to the max. As ornate architectural styles gave way to more streamlined classical structures, so did music eventually give way to the Classical style with the characteristic Alberti bass accompaniments which allowed for melodies to be supported more by "block" harmonic progressions rather than additional competing counter-melodies which outlined the harmony. Embellishment surrendered to simplicity. It was a major turning point in musical history.

Alberti bass can be described as the arpeggiation of a triad... Example: C-G-E-G in any inversion. This is found all over Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and their contemporaries, but was also used in the works of CPE Bach whose style bore more resemblance to Haydn and Mozart than they did to those of his renowned father's.

[Macrozonaris]

Knud Jeppesen - Counterpoint

The ur version of species counterpoint; Palestrina style. The simplest and yet hardest to master. Not only are there rules, but melodic curves as well, which have to go against each other with elegance.

[Frodo]

Not only are there rules....

But spikes, barbs, and speed bumps!!

Indeed. What a discipline, this stuff.