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Print Price: $93.95

Format:
Paperback
528 pp.
8.5" x 11"

ISBN-13:
9780190841614

Copyright Year:
2031

Imprint: OUP US

The Complete Musician

The Essentials

Steven G. Laitz, Susan de Ghize and Ian Sewell

Based on Steven G. Laitz's highly acclaimed The Complete Musician, this volume offers a streamlined and exceptionally approachable introduction to key topics of music theory. In a brief package that includes a workbook, online recordings of all examples, and two online video demonstrations for each chapter, it covers the core concepts of the standard curriculum, but with a deep focus on their roles within a musical context.

Available from leading higher education eBook retailers, The Complete Musician: The Essentials interactive eBook brings the text's narrative to life with a rich assortment of audio and video resources.

Readership : Music Theory I-IV; Graduate Review Music theory.

Reviews

"The authors of The Complete Musician: The Essentials are aware of the changing skills required of the 21st-century undergraduate music student and have created a resource that focuses on the indispensable skills of musicianship. Laitz, de Ghizé, and Sewell have carefully crafted a text that assumes little knowledge in the beginning chapters on fundamentals, while challenging students with diverse musical repertoire in later analysis and study."
--Jennifer Snodgrass, Appalachian State University
"Laitz's The Complete Musician has been studied by literally tens of thousands of aspiring musicians in recent decades. In The Essentials he leads a team of three expert pedagogues in this comprehensive, user-friendly repository of crystal-clear explanations of music from the common-practice period to recent times. The Essentials hands on a lifetime of musical knowledge and passion to the musicians of the future."
--Jonathan Dunsby, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester
"Kudos to OUP for preserving the 'essence' of The Complete Musician in a strategically organized and thorough yet agile version! The interactive eBook at half the price is a most welcome feature that will make The Essentials available to many more music students."
--Alejandro Sabre, Modesto Community College
"Without sacrificing any of the strengths of Steven Laitz's solo-authored textbook--depth of insight, musicality, application to listening and performance, and a focus on interpretation rather than just labeling--this new book adds another: succinctness. It will prove to be user-friendly for students in a variety of pedagogical contexts. Moreover, by discussing music composed by women, the authors take a much-needed step toward a broader and more inclusive undergraduate theory curriculum."
--Michael Callahan, Michigan State University

Each chapter ends with Terms and Concepts.
Preface
PART 1. FUNDAMENTALS
1. Fundamentals of Musical Notation: Rhythm and Pitch
Introduction to Rhythm
Introduction to Pitch
More Notational Symbols
2. Musical Time
Meter
Rhythmic and Metric Divisions
Accent and Metrical Disturbance
3. Scales and Keys
Two Fundamental Scales
Major Scales and Keys
Scale Degrees
Minor Scales and Keys
Major and Minor Relations
4. Intervals
Naming Intervals: Perfect, Major, and Minor
Transforming Intervals: Augmented, Diminished, and Inverted
Generating Intervals
Transposition
Consonant and Dissonant Intervals
5. Triads and Seventh Chords
Introduction to Chords: Triads
Figured Bass
Harmonic Analysis
Seventh Chords
Arpeggiation and Distribution
Summary of Part 1
PART 2. DIATONIC HARMONY AND VOICE LEADING
6. Introduction to Melody and Two-Voice Counterpoint
Melody: Characteristics and Writing
Introduction to Two-Voice Counterpoint
First-Species Counterpoint
Second-Species Counterpoint
Fourth-Species Counterpoint
7. Textural and Melodic Embellishment
Musical Texture
Embellishing Tones: Chord Tones and Nonchord Tones
Melodic Embellishment and Reduction
8. Tonic and Dominant Chords: The Pillars of Tonal Music
Characteristics and Effects of I and V
Introduction to Voice Leading
9. Second Level Analysis and Contrapuntal Expansions of I and V: Six-Three Chords
Second-Level Analysis
Chordal Leaps in the Bass: I6 and V6
Neighbor Tones in the Bass: V6
Passing Tones in the Bass: viio6
IV]6 Expands I and V
Revisiting Second-Level Analysis
10. V7 and its Inversions
The Dominant Seventh and Chordal Dissonance
Voice Leading for V7
V]7 in Inversion
11. Leading-Tone Seventh Chords
Leading-Tone Seventh Chords in Minor Keys: viio7
Leading-Tone Seventh Chords in Major Keys: viio7 and vii]o7 Summary of Contrapuntal Expansions
Summary of Part 2
PART 3. THE PHRASE MODEL
12. The Pre-Dominant and the Phrase Model
Harmonic Function and the Predominant
Predominant Chords
Expanding the Predominant
The Phrase Model
13. More Embellishing Tones
Unaccented versus Accented Embellishing Tones
Accented and Chromatic Embellishing Tones
Appoggiatura and Escape Tone
Suspension
Anticipation
Pedal
Summary of the Most Common Embellishing Tones
14. Six-Four Chords, Revisiting the Subdominant, and Summary of Contrapuntal Expansions
Unaccented Six-Four Chords
Accented Six-Four Chords in Cadences
Revisiting the Subdominant
Summary of Harmonic Models
15. Pre-Dominant Sevenths and Embedded Phrase Models
Predominant Seventh Chords
Embedding the Phrase Model
Contrapuntal Cadences
Expanding the Predominant with Sevenths
Terms and Concepts
Summary of Part 3
PART 4. NEW CHORDS AND FORMS
16. The Submediant and Mediant: New Diatonic Harmonies
Submediant Chord (vi in Major; VI in Minor)
Mediant Chord (iii in Major; III in Minor)
The Step Descent in the Bass
17. Small Musical Structures: Periods and Sentences
The Period
Types of Periods: Melody and Harmony
Labelling and Diagramming Periods
Sample Analysis and Analytical Guidelines
Periods with Two of the "Same" Cadence
The Double Period
The Sentence
18. Harmonic Sequences
Analyzing Sequences
Type of Sequences
Adding Seventh Chords
Writing Sequences
Summary of Diatonic Sequences
Summary of Part 4
PART 5. CHROMATIC HARMONY (I): TONICIZATION AND MODULATION
19. Tonicization
Applied Dominant Chords
Applied Leading-Tone Chords
Sequences with Applied Chords
20. Modulation
Modulation versus Tonicization
Modulation to Closely Related Keys
Pivot Chords
Modulation via Sequences
Pivot Areas
Modulation and Tonicization in the Larger Musical Context
21. Binary Form and Variations
Binary Form
Types of Binary: Themes and Harmony
Labeling and Diagramming Binary Form
Theme-and-Variation Form
Summary of Part 5
PART 6. CHROMATIC HARMONY (II): MIXING MODES
22. Modal Mixture and Plagal Motion
Altered Predominant Harmonies: iio and iv
Alerted Submediant Harmony: bVI
Altered Tonic Harmony: i
Alerted Mediant Harmony: bIII
Chromatic Stepwise Bass Descents
Modal Mixture in Plagal Motions
23. The Augmented Sixth Chord
Types of Augmented Sixth Chords
Writing Augmented Sixth Chords
Other Characteristics and Uses of Augmented Sixths
24. The Neapolitan Chord (]bII) and Chromatic Modulation
Expanding bII
Chromatic Modulations
Unprepared and Chromatic Common-Tone Modulations
Summary of Part 6
PART 7. LARGE FORMS
25. Ternary Form
Types of Ternary Form
Transitions and Retransitions
Ternary Form in Multimovement Works
Ternary Form in the Nineteenth Century
26. Sonata Form
Elements of Sonata Form
Other Approaches to Sonata Form
27. Rondo Form
The Classical Rondo
Five-Part Rondo
Seven-Part Rondo
Sonata-Rondo Form
PART 8. NINETEENTH-CENTURY HARMONY
28. Nineteenth Century Harmonic Techniques
Common-Tone Expansions
Altered Dominants
Tonal Ambiguity
29. New Chromatic Procedures: Tonality's Edge
Harmonic Transformations
Chromatic Sequences
Terms and Concepts
Summary of Part 8
PART 9. TWENTIETH-CENTURY HARMONY
30. Beyond the Common Practice: Twentienth-Century Chords and Scales
Triadic Extensions and Quartal/Quintal Chords
Diatonic Scales Beyond Major and Minor
Chromatic Collections
31. Atonality and Set Theory
Naming Notes in Atonal Music: PC Numbers
Intervals between pc Numbers
pc Sets
Set Classes: (Best) Normal Order and Prime Form
Segmentation and Analysis
32. Twelve-Tone Music
Twelve-Tone Music: Rows and Row Forms
Writing and Using Twelve-Tone Rows
Analyzing Twelve-Tone Rows
Summary of Part 9
Glossary

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

Steven G. Laitz is Chair of Music Theory and Analysis and Assistant Dean for Curricular Development at the Juilliard School in New York.

Susan de Ghizé is Assistant Professor of Music Theory at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

Ian Sewell is a PhD student at Columbia University.

Making Sense - Margot Northey

Special Features

Focuses on multi-chord harmonic progressions and prolongations, rather than single harmonies or chord pairs, helping students learn to appreciate music's unfolding in time.
Presents an outstanding quality, quantity, and diversity of exercises geared toward real music.
Recorded musical excerpts illustrate all key topics, with a diverse repertoire ranging from Wipo's eleventh-century setting of "Victimae paschali laudes" to John Coltrane's "Giant Steps".
Offers a number of new examples of music by women with recordings of work from Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, Eva Jessye, Josephine Lang, and many others.
A supporting workbook - available separately or in a money-saving bundle with the text - features a variety of activities that progress from introductory analytical exercises to more advanced compositional ones
A wealth of digital learning tools - available in a variety of formats - support the text, including video lectures with assessments, streaming audio recordings of the examples in the book and exercises