This item met my expectations. It was really good. I will gladly do business with this seller again.

Good deal

I have many fond memories with this book and with Music Theory in general. Thanks for being a huge part of my life!

I'm a music major at Midwestern state university...
I needed this book for theory III and ear training/sight seeing III...
even though there is no image available this book is the right one...
the information inside of it is invaluable

condition better than anticipated.

When I was in music school, we used Robert Ottman's Sight Singing book, and I still think the current edition is terrific. He also wrote texts on elementary harmony and this text on advanced harmony. This is an interesting and practical guide to the basics of harmony. The subtitle is "theory and practice" and that is right, but by theory it really means musical grammar and the emphasis in the book is really on practice. What have composers actually done, what to look for, and how to hear it.

The text is concise, without long and labored explanations. However, for those who want detailed explanations of harmony, it might seem terse. The real emphasis in this text is on the rich selection of musical examples. A CD accompanies the text that plays the musical samples so the student can hear them (if you can't hear them by looking at them music or play them on your piano). So, the text is really for a practicing musician who wants to know the steps, say, to a "pivot chord" without an extended explication of the implications of such a thing.

Ottman also deals with aspects of orchestration, figuration, and musical form. Again, his approach is always practical and does not delve into the topics in an extended way. He lets the student examine the musical samples to get the point of what the text says. I think this is the way musicians actually prefer learning about music, anyway. If they wanted to read lots of text they would have pursued a different profession, right? Sure, those of us who study music theory dig into things a bit differently, but it is the music analysis written in some form of notation we always find most compelling.

This book begins with modulation and has chapters on diminished triads, seventh chords, secondary leading tone functions, modulation using diminished seventh chords, binary and ternary forms, extending part-writing to instrumental music, diatonic seventh chords, chromatic chords, augmented sixth chords and their uses, ninth - eleventh & thirteenth chords, special chords and progressions, harmony in the late 19th Century, Debussy and Impressionism, and post Debussy 20th Century music, and ends with a chapter on Serialism.

Appendix A covers conventional procedures for part-writing. Appendix B provides information on orchestration (instrumental ranges and transpositions). There is also an index of compositions, and a subject index.

This is a useful and practical book for the practicing musician wanting to become proficient with the (advanced) basics of harmonic grammar.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Ottman's Elementary Harmony:
Elementary Harmony Theory and Practice

Ottman's Sight Singing 7th edition:
Music for Sight Singing (7th Edition)

I immediately saw some questionable analyses in this book. I'll note an example below. Also, I don't understand the consistent, simplistic analysis of a single pivot chord as establishment of modulation. The analysis should be broader in terms of the overlapping of dually interpreted regions. In many examples used by Ottman, successive regions (as opposed to a single pivot chord) should be identified as part of a more sophisticated interpretation of modulation.

Also, I don't understand the value in using figured bass as part of a text on advanced harmony. Sure, a brief explanation of figured bass in elementary harmony books would explain the conventional use of the terms "6 chords" and "4-3 chords" etc., but this should only serve to explain common usage of inversion identification. Beyond that, someone would need to explain the value in the figured bass exercises I see here?

Maybe one example of misinterpretation will relate my dissatisfaction with the text. I use this example, because I see consistent misinterpretation of diminished chords in the text. By the way, I likely have an older edition (third). In a harmonic analysis of Schubert's Sonata in B flat Major measures 42-48, Ottman sees the harmonic progression of I (B flat major) - V - vii/ii (single pivot chord - a diminished chord/vagrant harmony then reinterpreted as vii of the new key of F# minor, an altered root of tonic major!??!) - then V f# minor - I of f# minor.

I strongly disagree with this analysis. A more logical explanation of this modultion should consider the interchangeability of major and minor with a simple modulation to the closely related region of submediant minor via the regions path of tonic major - tonic minor - to tonic minor's submediant minor enharmonically presented as f# minor. The diminished chord is better dually interpreted as altered III of tonic minor and dually V of submediant minor with the root initially omitted, the dissonance b9 resolving to the root of the V7 chord leading to the Gb minor tonic enharmonically established as f# minor. This way the analysis of the minor tonic region (interchange of major to minor at the second chord, a shared dominant) is the simple logical progression I-V-III-VI overlapping (beginning at the diminished chord) with the submediant minor region progression of V (altered) - V7 - I. This seems more logical than I - V - VII/II (II never realized) - then, that VII/II of tonic becomes VII of the very remote region of either mediant major's mediant minor or enharmonically flat submediant minor of the major tonic region - followed finally by V7 - I of the new region.

I truly feel that these misunderstandings will establish lasting problems in students' learning of the structure of functional harmony. Sorry for being long-winded, and I understand that my presentation of the example is difficult to read without the music here referenced. I feel that the serious musician's development would be seriously misguided by the text. As an alternative, I personally like Schoenberg's works on harmony. I hope this helps someone! Thanks