Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony (Dover Books On Music: Analysis)

I drew a picture of Yoda on the inside cover of my copy because I felt like Luke Skywalker being trained as a Jedi while working through it. Tchaikovsky was not messing around and he puts you through the paces, but if you can stick with it -- and I had to come back to the book after dropping it once for a year -- you really do grow stronger as a musician. It is very much a book that is like being sent to boot camp with a stern but extremely gifted drill sergeant.

Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, wrote this book after his professorship at the Imperial Conservatory of Moscow in 1900. Tchaikovsky is one of the most influential composers and orchestrators of symphonic music ever. Here in his Guide To The Practical Study of Harmony" he gives us all a glimpse into his vast knowledge of harmony as a process. He has taken his watch apart for us all to see how it works. We all may not desire to see how a watch works. After reading this book you will at least know why a watch works as it does. He understood the importance of translating emotion through intense musical performance. His "Tutti" sections for orchestra will always be the clarion call to our senses. My ear will never tire of anticipating what emotion will come next as each section of the orchestra is featured. Tchaikovsky understood the full potential of writing for the orchestra. His voicing techniques are deliberate. What you hear is what was intended. As a composer it is clear Tchaikovsky wrote to arouse. Like all great artist in both art and music, his music was purposeful and provocative. This treatise is a wonderful look behind his scores. Not a look into why he wrote the right notes. But how he wrote the "right" notes. Tchaikovsky's orchestrations are true scoring genius. Brilliant instrumental combinations. Each featured and woven together into a colorful orchestral tapestry. Tchaikovsky saw the orchestra as a colorful garden of beauty and sound. This book gives insight into how he harvested his garden to create an everlasting orchestral bouquet. A bouquet we all get to enjoy. If you are studying composition and orchestration you must read this book.

EXCELLENT BOOK!!! Great for college level III+ review (which is why I bought it). Very detailed with SATB exercises that focus on material presented in that chapter. Very in depth, covers all the basics such as doubling, voice leading, inversions, to specifically dissonant harmony to extended harmonies and beyond. The wording can be a little difficult at times without an instructor to put it in plain English. The book briefly goes over the essentials, but most assumes prior knowledge.

It's hard to think of the great Tchaikovsky ever having to teach theory and musicianship but he did and wrote really succintly about it. Great read. As the title says, it's really practical!

Unlike the vast majority of other books on the subject, this book gets right to the point. No sentence is wasted. The Shoenberg book for example has so much fluff and nonsense I wanted to throw it across the room. However, sometimes ideas are presented so concisely that you have to view the sentences as riddles to be solved. "What does this really mean, exactly?" He presents concepts as if speaking to himself, without much thought for a reader who may be even slightly less informed. Be warned. On another note, for any other theorists out there - anyone want to explain to me why he compared the major scale to the harmonic minor and not the natural minor? He clearly wanted to make a point that "there's more dissonants with minor", which isn't true if you use natural minor... so it seems like he manipulated things to make his point.

There are a lot of better books on the practical studies of harmony, BUT this one is written by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, and that's a reason in it self, to buy the book. There isn't that many books written by great composers of the past. Rameau's Treatise on Harmony, and Berlioz Orchestration is perhaps the most heavy weight books on music written by famous composers. Later on Schönberg and Hindemith has given us some very good contributions.

Highly technical, style very academic and dry. Hard to believe this was written by a successful, indeed a great composer. If he really did what he recommends, I doubt anybody would ever have heard of him outside the doors of the conservatory. Of course it's all accurate and has many useful examples, but it's very uninspiring and frankly boring; I guess his students had to buy it.

Arrived in good condition. Can't commend the content as it is not for me. Got it for a family member's piano class. He is happy with it.