Counterpoint in Composition: The Study of Voice Leading

by Carl Schacheter, Felix Salzer

The music from the past is far from dead. It lives, first of all, in the interplay between the performer and the sensitive listener. There still exists a considerable number of young performing musicians who are anxious to deepen their understanding of the music that, after all, constitutes the bulk of their repertory.

In addition, that music continues to have meaning for those composers who recognize that an understanding of its inner workings can be an invaluable help in attaining craftmanship regardless of their particular mode of expression. Some of them attempt to forge their own connections with the past and believe that some aspects of earlier music might emerge transformed in a still unknown musical language of the future.

These points of view are in accord with the aim of this book; musicians must maintain contact with the music of the past. This book is for teachers and students who share this outlook.

478 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1969