COUNTERPOINT! WOO!!!
this is a favorite of mine among the etudes so far. until now, counterpoint was a secret love of mine. now you know. for a real how-to on counterpoint, start with bach’s keyboard material. inventions, fugue’s, sinfonia’s, they all set the bar high, and they’re all created with a pretty specific set of rules. what i tend to do with counterpoint now is approach it within these rules/guidelines and break them as my ear leads. a recent approach i like alot is to stick more or less to rules for theme and form, but break some of the rules of harmony.
this piece get’s a wee bit out of the harmonic box, but mostly stays close to home. things that it does do that are the most strict are.
1. harmonic and rhythmic themes
2. theme at the relative minor (briefly)
3. theme at the fifth (modified)
4. two voices only
5. canon
—
right around :53 seconds, listen for the “canon”, which is the theme presented exactly the same way in two different voices, but at different times. in this case, they’re offset by one beat. you’ll hear the theme start in the high voice and then follow in the lower voice, remaining exactly the same until the very end, where i changed the lower part to end the piece.
thanks for listening, as always. and toon in sometime soon, as i’ll hopefully be posting some fresh tracks from a hip-hop record i’m making.
p.s. i’ll also be updating www.steinimation.com soonly, with my first attempt at an advertizement. if you havn’t seen this video site, please stop by!
Tags: bach, counterpoint, etude, fugue, invention, jon steinmeier, musical canon, nerdy music, piano music, sinfonia, song a week, steiny, student pieces
