strav101 wrote:The big problem with harmony books is that they concentrate too much on the vertical dimension...
I think you hit on a very important point. In my experience most students ask to study theory when they really want to study applied harmony. They often seem to believe that the study will somehow remove blocks they encounter when writing more involved chord progressions. But as you say, too often the study of harmony focuses on the nature of the chord instead of the complex interaction of tones within a chord progression.
These days I advise serious students to undertake a 3-way study of ear-training, harmony, and score analysis. Counterpoint study is invaluable if you're going into composition, but I also recommend it to any classical instrumentalist. The analysis stage applies the tools learned in harmony study, hopefully leading to a better understanding of the application of harmony in the horizontal dimension, i.e. chord progressions.
Well, his focus is on Palestrinan counterpoint. If you're familiar with Palestrina's music you'll know why there's not so much in-depth discussion of the vertical harmonies resulting in Fux's exercises. Btw, I went through the Gradus for modal counterpoint study. I suppose there are better tutorials out there, but I enjoyed using Fux's method. Jeppesen is great for a more historical introduction to the same material, but I consider him to be a different order of educator than was Fux.... with Fux studies there is hardly any consideration of the vertical component
All just my 2 drachmas, of course.
