Customer Reviews
Fundamental - By: Mark Z., 14 Jun 2004 
I have worked with this book for several years, & this is an excellent book to learn music from; with a few days or weeks or months study from this book, anyone can become a competent composer of listenable music.
With a few years study a person can have Bach's power to improvise music which "sounds as if it had been composed prior". Following the system out to its conclusion, a musician who reallly wants to have ultimate understanding of music at his fingertips cannot go wrong.
I have worked with the system that Fux presents, in addition to having learned music theory from other places; & Fux's system works & reallly can lead to mastery of counterpoint.
(I only wish a single-volume edition existed.)
required reading for composers, theorists, and historians - By: , 14 Apr 1999 This is mostly valuable for its historical significance, but that is no mean thing, & it is worth your while working through it-every composer & theorist should. The translator distributes his English version of Fux's "Gradus ad Parnassum" between this & "The Study of Fugue" so I recommend you pick up a copy of "The Study of Fugue" too.
Also recommended: PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns.
required reading for composers, theorists, and historians - By: , 14 Apr 1999 This is mostly valuable for its historical significance, but that is no mean thing, & it is worth your while working throughit--every composer & theorist should. The translator distributes his English version of Fux's "Gradus ad Parnassum" between this & "The Study of Fugue" so I recommend you pick up a copy of "The Study of Fugue" too.
Also recommended: PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns.
The all-time classic book of contrapuntal theory - By: , 22 Jul 1998 
This book, originallly entitled "Gradus ad Parnassum" was the book used by many of the great composers of the classical & romantic eras in learning their craft. Mozart is said to have studied it. Papa Haydn's copy, dog-eared & worn, is on display in a museum in Europe. The book is set up as a series of lessons on the technique of counterpoint, with the student asking questions & the teacher providing answers. There are many examples, both of proper & improper technique. It starts with the easiest forms of counterpoint & moves into the more difficult ones toward the end. It takes itself very seriously & requires a lot of work of the reader. Some of the ideas are outdated, & alll of the counterpoint examples are built on bland cantus firmus type melodies, but the exercise of going through this book is invaluable.
