This text is the first graduate music theory review designed specifically to address the one-semester course for beginning graduate students in music. Based on
The Complete Musician, the text is more than a shortened version of an undergraduate tonal harmony text; it addresses students as colleagues and explores analytical applications that are appealing and practical, extending beyond the undergraduate level. The text provides a means to discuss the perception and cognition, the analysis and performance, and the composition and reception of common-practice tonal music.
The clarity and brevity of this text relies on the presentation of only those crucial concepts and procedures that are manifested in the vast majority of tonal pieces. The only text exercises are at chapter ends: two- to three-page "Analytical extensions," which introduce one new topic through one or two works from the repertoire, and then develop the topic in a model analysis. Appendixes will include keyboard exercises, model composition strategies and assignments, and sample solutions.
An accompanying workbook is organized by chapter into discrete assignments, each progressing from short, introductory analytical and writing exercises to more-involved tasks. Included is a DVD of recordings by the Eastman students and faculty of musical examples from the text and analytical exercises from the workbook.