SEVEN STEPS TO HEAVEN: A SPECIES APPROACH TO TWENTIETH-CENTURY ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION.(music)

I PROPOSE TO OUTLINE a system of species counterpoint applicable to twentieth-century modal music. In so doing, I hope to provide this repertory with the kind of broad-based analytical tools that have long been available for tonal music. It is well-known that traditional species counterpoint is useful both for analysis and as a step-by-step method for students of tonal composition. It is my hope that the twentieth-century update outlined here can function effectively in both roles as well. The first of two articles, this paper summarizes two- and three-part first species counterpoint as the basis of the method.

The original motivation behind this species counterpoint approach was the intractability of the analysis of much twentieth-century repertory, particularly the music of Hindemith, Shostakovich, Bartok, and Copland. Such music is often difficult to analyze from either a tonal or atonal perspective. Whereas clearly tonal or clearly atonal music have theories that are fairly exact in their application, much twentieth-century practice, influenced by the modality explored in this paper, is hazier; the musical grammar can shift on a sliding scale from common-practice tonality to outright atonality. This can be true not only among pieces by different composers, but also within the same piece or even the same passage. Hence, we need a general way of approaching those "in-between" works--those passages that are clearly not tonal, but clearly not atonal either and do not specifically depend on the practice of one composer. The sliding scale of the "seven steps" of diatonic modality to be presented here provides one mea ns of getting a broad handle on much of this literature.

The presentation in this paper is theoretically focused, but I discuss several completed species counterpoint exercises in order better to show the method's advantages. A more pedagogically oriented presentation, based on material developed for use in class, is planned as well. I have found this material to be stimulating pedagogically--as step-by-step training for students of both composition and analysis, especially for those who have familiarity with traditional species counterpoint. Its greatest advantage is introducing students to compositional models that gradually become more and more dissonant until tonality has diffused into atonality. The method's efficiency is such that students are able to apply its principles immediately to their own work, whether it be composition or analysis.

Students of composition, in working through twentieth-century species exercises, begin with models that approximate the conservative Hindemith or Shostakovich style. Later, by incorporating bimodal and bitonal two-part writing and more dissonant trichords, these students can experiment with the harmonic textures of Bartok or Stravinsky. At the limits of the theory, students write atonally, thinking in terms of atonal set-theoretical principles derived from experience with the prime trichords. In all cases, students learn the diatonic modes and the prime trichords thoroughly. As a result, they are subsequently able to work effectively with set-based atonal theories or jazz theories of modal design. Thus, students of jazz have also found it helpful in both composition and improvisation.

For students of analysis, the method is equally productive. Again, they will learn the diatonic modes and the twelve prime trichords thoroughly. Much twentieth-century literature can be tackled with this method to yield a "first-step" overview of the music. Of course, more particular theories should be brought to bear on specific composers and pieces as becomes necessary, but much as functional Roman-numeral analysis is largely applied as a first-step reading of a tonal piece, the seven-steps method and the trichordal theory has proven helpful for trying to unlock twentieth-century literature that reflects some tonal bias, i.e., music that traditional tonal theory might consider to have "wrong notes" and is unable to explain generally.

There is a long history of the pedagogical application of species counterpoint. Its fame as a tool for teaching composition spread through publication of what is probably the most well-known compositional treatise in Western history, the Gradus ad Parnassum of Johann Joseph Fux. [1] While Fux did not originate pedagogical use of the species, he consolidated the work of his predecessors. Many counterpoint treatises followed Fux's work, [2] but the most thorough study of species counterpoint appeared in the twentieth century, Heinrich Schenker's extensive and definitive Counterpoint. [3]

In his Counterpoint, Schenker pioneered a species approach not intended as compositional pedagogy. Instead, Schenker showed that species counterpoint not only underlies tonal syntax in general, but also provides a superb point of departure for the analysis of tonal free composition. It was originally Schenker's inspiration that suggested the seven-steps method as a useful tool for analysis; from that idea the compositionally oriented approach followed.