Chorale / 4-part vocal harmony (SATB) resources?

[arbogast]

I need to brush up on writing this style. It's 20+ yrs since I studied this. As i prefer learning by doing (is there any other way?) I need material with exercises.
If anyone would care to recommend book &/or online resources, I'd be very grateful.

[jlocri]

I need to brush up on writing this style. It's 20+ yrs since I studied this. As i prefer learning by doing (is there any other way?) I material with exercises.
If anyone would care to recommend book &/or online resources, I'd be very grateful.

CH Kitson has a nice book for beginners, someone who has already done this stuff could probably finish it within a night. Also for beginners: . After that, Kent Kennan has a book focusing on an early 18th century style and Walter Piston's Counterpoint focuses on a slightly later style. Both are brilliant and easy to follow.

There's not much free on-line resources because it's a rare talent amongst musicians these days, not that it was ever common.

[stanlea]

Automatic 4 part harmony :

http://www.capella-software.com/tonica.cfm

expensive, but unique

[jlocri]

Automatic 4 part harmony :

http://www.capella-software.com/tonica.cfm

expensive, but unique

Nice novelty, but the "Composing it for you" is false advertisement. 4 part harmony isn't just following rules.

[arbogast]

Automatic 4 part harmony :

http://www.capella-software.com/tonica.cfm

expensive, but unique

(Argh! == thanks, but no thanks)

CH Kitson has a nice book for beginners, someone who has already done this stuff could probably finish it within a night. Also for beginners: . After that, Kent Kennan has a book focusing on an early 18th century style and Walter Piston's Counterpoint focuses on a slightly later style. Both are brilliant and easy to follow.

There's not much free on-line resources because it's a rare talent amongst musicians these days, not that it was ever common.

I'll check out the Kitson book. Thanks for the advise.

[jancivil]

Automatic 4 part harmony :

http://www.capella-software.com/tonica.cfm

expensive, but unique

worst idea in the world. I guess you didn't notice the OP indicated their interest in learning by doing. This is the notion of learning by avoiding the doing. But, a sucker is born every minute they say.

I'm not a fan of getting something from a book alone, but as you said you'd done some work before, I would search for 'exercises'. A teacher will grade the exercises bringing knowledge and context rather than as an abstraction wth one right answer.

[Sepheritoh]

The classical texts. All of them

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query ... pe%3Atexts

[planetmullins]

I need to brush up on writing this style. It's 20+ yrs since I studied this. As i prefer learning by doing (is there any other way?) I need material with exercises.
If anyone would care to recommend book &/or online resources, I'd be very grateful.

To me, Bach was the master of that art form. I keep a book of his chorales in the studio and refer to them from time to time. They are pretty easy to read and by just playing them on a good keyboard patch you will get the vibe of what he's doing and should be able to start writing your own. Sorry I don't have the exact name of the book on hands as we're in the middle of rewiring the studio atm but you should be able to find Bach chorale books on Amazon and sheet music plus as well as recordings.

[stanlea]

Automatic 4 part harmony :

http://www.capella-software.com/tonica.cfm

expensive, but unique

worst idea in the world. I guess you didn't notice the OP indicated their interest in learning by doing. This is the notion of learning by avoiding the doing. But, a sucker is born every minute they say.

I'm not a fan of getting something from a book alone, but as you said you'd done some work before, I would search for 'exercises'. A teacher will grade the exercises bringing knowledge and context rather than as an abstraction wth one right answer.

Hey jancivil, me sucks ? Sorry for that... but consider I'm not so stupid as I seem to be. Automatic harmony is a research field like another, why not take it as it is ? Harmony has laws, that you must learn, of course. But in the learning process, you can also consider using pedagogical tools, in order to compare your productions to a canonical one. A tool is not a mind, obviously. And my post wasn't explicit, I apologize for that.

[arbogast]

I'm not a fan of getting something from a book alone, but as you said you'd done some work before, I would search for 'exercises'. A teacher will grade the exercises bringing knowledge and context rather than as an abstraction wth one right answer.

I have been searching for exercises of course. They seem a sparse resource in the web, though.

To me, Bach was the master of that art form. I keep a book of his chorales in the studio and refer to them from time to time. They are pretty easy to read and by just playing them on a good keyboard patch you will get the vibe of what he's doing and should be able to start writing your own.

Oh I have some books with chorales which I have been playing and will be playing - also by other composers. Still, acquiring the theory or the practise doesn't always mean that the other'll follow if you know what I mean.

Thanks to everyone for taking your time. I really appreciate it.

[herodotus]

I need to brush up on writing this style. It's 20+ yrs since I studied this. As i prefer learning by doing (is there any other way?) I need material with exercises.
If anyone would care to recommend book &/or online resources, I'd be very grateful.

To me, Bach was the master of that art form. I keep a book of his chorales in the studio and refer to them from time to time. They are pretty easy to read and by just playing them on a good keyboard patch you will get the vibe of what he's doing and should be able to start writing your own. Sorry I don't have the exact name of the book on hands as we're in the middle of rewiring the studio atm but you should be able to find Bach chorale books on Amazon and sheet music plus as well as recordings.

They also have quite a few scores and midi files here.

[Adrian Earnshaw Music]

I can recommend the Kitson book, which you can get from Amazon as they will print it to order. If you can, get your hands on 'Free Counterpoint' by William Lovelock. You may have to google this one as it is a really old book but a good one.

Just had a search on Amazon for you and its available in Kindle format:-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elementary-Harm ... 511&sr=8-2