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Bach Chorales for Dummies?

Hi, I'm meant to be doing Bach Chorale harmonisation for my A2 comp techniques exam (Edexcel), and I was wondering if anyone knew of any books which teach you how to do this, a kind of Bach Chorales for Dummies book if you like.

If anyone can help, that would be great!

Reply 1

x_muso_x

'A Student's Guide to Harmony and Counterpoint' by Hugh Benham has two good sections on chorales and baroque counterpoint which is a mixture of explanation and exercises...

also the infamous William Lovelock first/second/third year harmony books are tediously boring, but very useful also

also I'd suggest getting a book of actual bach chorales and play a few every now again, so you get a 'feel' for the actual harmony itself rather than just the mechanics...

good luck! :p:

Reply 2

J'en ai marre

I recommend Anna Butterworth's Harmony in Practice for all your harmony needs.

Reply 3

Ywiss

Get hold of this:

371 4-Part Chorales (J.S. Bach)
http://www.boosey.com/pages/shop/product_detail.asp?id=683069&a=

It's really helpful to actually see the examples of what you're supposed to be modelling your own chorales on. What I found useful then was to copy down the soprano line, while not looking at the other lines, and trying to fill in the harmonies myself. I then compared with Bach's harmonies.

I also doubly recommend "A Student's Guide to Harmony and Counterpoint", although it's annoying because it doesn't have any model answers/examples, just questions.

Reply 4

sexysax

Ditto to that Bach book above. Our uni lecturer recommended it and said it was really useful. I haven't got it, but I've only heard good things about it.

Reply 5

NickiM

I've just bought the Benham book, and it is really useful, just doesn't have any answers, as someone else said.

Reply 6

Freckely Tim

ooo I'm doing Edexcel music too which listening topics r u doing?

I'm doing baroque counterpoint myself but ********* do a great textbook specially geared towards A-level composition papers:

http://www.*********.co.uk/guides/msg/general/msg-harmo-home.cfm

it's got loads of example exercises and advice on how to go about it and there should be a special chapter on bach chorales.

however I think it's quite pricey.

Anna Butterworth's orange book is also nice and clear.