An Introduction to Tonal Theory

This book was developed for a first-year two-semester college-level course in tonal theory. This book owes its greatest debts to Schenker, Fux and Bernhardt. Its central pedagogical means--species counterpoint--is that developed by Fux in the Gradus ad Parnassum. But is goal is that developed by Schenker in Kontrapunkt--the ability to understand the complex and varied voice-leading patterns of actual eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music in terms of the simpler patterns available under the artificial constraints of species counterpoint.