Modal Counterpoint: Renaissance Style

I bought the spiral bound physical copy of the 2nd Ed., and it’s a perfectly fine copy of a great textbook. But before this, I bought the kindle e-textbook of the first Ed., and it’s worthless—the pages aren’t in order, making it virtually impossible to read.

Peter Schubert is on the faculty of McGill University. As a first-time teacher of species counterpoint I am impressed by this book's organization, clarity of explanation and vast quantity of practice exercises. For the sake of the beginner student fine nuances of style are skipped, especially in the early chapters, in favor of a thorough grounding in rules, divided into "hard" and "soft" categories. The former are regarded as unyielding benchmarks of correctness, while the latter have to do more with stylistic ease and euphony. The sheer quantity of rules may overwhelm some students; careful explanation by the instructor is necessary to avoid glazed-over eyes and discouragement. At least in my edition there is as yet no attempt to put some of the examples and exercises in audio form, as do many theory texts today. I also think answer keys for some of the shorter exercises would make this book even more useful, though of course such things tempt some students to peek.Still, the organization of the material and the obvious expertise of the author make this textbook a most impressive entry in the music theory teaching sweepstakes.

This book has a clear modern writing style with plenty of good examples. As a graduate student in composition I found it an engaging and efficient way to learn the information I was interested in.

Bought this for a workshop on the topic as it was recommended by the instructor. Had no idea there were such tightly constructed rules on composition in the Renaissance... Thank goodness for the rule breakers.

Shipped fast, just what I needed

Easy to read, many many exercises, great approach to the subject. A lot of examples from the literature - this is especially helpful.

Errata for 'Modal Counterpoint, Renaissance Style' by Peter SchubertPage 2 Ex.I-2: C time sig. should read 2/1 Ex. I-2: m.8, alto, last quarter B-flat should read B-naturalPage 3 Line 8: "labeled in the example" should be deleted (or add missing labels)Page 10 Ex. 1-1b: last line, 3rd measure fill in G-A-B-CPage 14 Ex. 1-3e: "(see Exx. 14-6 and 14-7)" should read "(see Exx. 14-9 and 14-10)"Page 15 Ex. 1-3g: "(see Exx. 14-6 and 14-7)" should read "(see Exx. 14-9 and 14-10)"Page 23 ill. #6: 2nd ex. w/ pyramid upside down should say "avoid"Page 25 Ex. 2-6b: treble 8ve clef in first two exx. should be alto clef Ex. 2-6b: clef in 3rd Ex. should be normal treble clefPage 51 line 9: "25 percent" should read "20 percent"Page 55 Exercise 4-D2: first CF note A should read GPage 61 line 16: "shown in Example 5-4" should read "shown in Example 5-5"Page 70 line 5: "high point to the next." should read "high point to the next temporary low point or vice-versa."Page 72 line 1: "third-species Mixolydian" should read "third-species Hypomixolydian" Ex. 5-D2: 4th staff, last note low G should be an octave higherPage 87 ill. rule 4: last example, "X" should be over quarter-note GPage 92 Ex. 7-5a: add brackets in mm. 4-11 over B-G-A-A-A and A-F-G-G-GPage 93 Exx. 7-5b & c: same as abovePage 99 Exercise 7-C2: signature in middle line should be B-flat (not C-flat!)Page 146 Puzzle-canon exercise: fourth canon, last note C should be DPage 169 line 1: "Example 5-2" should read "Example 5-4"Page 178 line 11: "stepwise in one direction (you" should read "stepwise (you"Page 187 Ex. 14-9: m.5, top line, tenor octave clef should be regular treble clefPage 188 Ex. 14-9: m. 16, middle line, 7th note should be F, not GPage 188 Ex. 14-10: m. 7, beat 4, middle voice, dot missingPage 192 line 15: "Compare numbers 4 and 7." should read "Compare numbers 4 and 6."Page 194 Ex. 14-12, #7: middle line, tenor octave clef should be regular treble clefPage 221 lines 3-4: delete "In each ...and bracketed" or have students label & bracket in Exx. 16-8 and 16-9Page 225 line 3: "in the mode indicated" delete (or teacher must specify mode)Page 252 line 10: "at the asterisk" should read "in m. 23" (or add * in alto, m. 23)Page 283 Ex. 19-14: bass, m. 14, reverse note E and restPage 308 Ex. App. 1-1: underline both first and third syllables in "Be - ne - dic -tus"Page 316 Appendix 4: 15th CF note breve D should be semibreve DOther minor/obvious mistakes are excluded.

MCRS is the most comprehensive textbook in print (as of 2006) that teaches 16th century counterpoint in terms of species. (The Jeppesen counterpoint book also deals with species, but has only c.f. exercises, and is not organized in a student-friendly way.) Schubert's music examples are drawn primarily from Renaissance music treatises rather than repertoire, in order to illustrate the various species; the relatively small number of repertoire examples includes more French chansons than excerpts from Palestrina or Lassus. There are considerably more exercises and assignments--from preparatory "warmups" through analyses and error detections to c.f. fragments and complete cf's--than can be covered in a 15- week course. Canon and invertible counterpoint are recurring topics. My students found the organization of "hard" and "soft" rules helpful. The exercises can be time-consuming, so teachers considering adopting this book as a course text should allow ample time to go through it in advance to decide which exercises to use and to actually write out their solutions.

I have just finished working through this book after two years and it's by far the best book about 16th century counterpoint I've come across - and I have used several.The benefit it has over other methods is that it goes back to the original Renaissance method books and uses exercises from those, unlike say Jeppesen, where I now realize (having worked through this book) that Jeppesen didn't know as much about Palestrina as he made out! There's nothing in Jeppesen about modal ranges for instance.The main thing wrong with it is the large number of typos, and also in some places I could have done with more worked examples, and the paper is very thin for a book that if used properly needs to be more robust.Also it's ridiculously expensive. I found the book six months before I bought it and the price made me wait. Eventually I took the plunge and am very glad that I did, but I still can't see why it has to be so expensive.I've just noticed that Peter Schubert has written a Baroque Counterpoint book so I guess I shall have to buy that - but that's even more expensive.

Everything I hoped for. All I need in terms of counterpoint theory.

Sadly, it is missing the majority of pages, the pages that are present are out of order, and impossible to find the page you want. The image is also sideways on the page.

Bra studiematerial

Excellent book. Well laid out and organized.