The absolute best harmony lessons I've ever had. Thank you, Seth!

So many new uploads in such a short time! thank you!

Seth, you are the best! Your videos are very informative, enjoyable, and therapeutic. I'd like to see some lessons that delve into film score harmony analysis and how it relates to classical music. Thanks very much.

Eagerly anticipating the return of the king this summer!

Great stuff always. Looking forward to diving deeper on sequences in the next videos! Thank you.

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

Video 40 incoming next week!😁

Very very valuable content! Please continue this great series

I've just finished the available (as of now) series, and will definitely go through it at least a second time. Both your method of teaching and the contents are simply on another level! Thank you so much for your ongoing effort and dedication!

Thank you for your videos! Very informative

Just yesterday I was looking at sequences and then alas! Thank you for such wonderful explanations, and I love the humor in your videos too!

Thank you professor for providing such high quality content as always. I have just started working on classical harmony and tried to compose without formal musical training, your videos certainly have helped me a ton and I feel obliged to express my gratitude from the other side of the globe! I will be looking forward to your lectures every summer:)

I've been reading Gjerdingen's book about Galant schemata, and now, when I hear this example from Beethoven's op. 132, I just think: "oh, a stepwise Romanesca!"... And now, all my music is full of labels, and I can't help it.

@1685Violin

Жыл бұрын

It's also know as either the "Pachelbel Progression" or when viewed contrapuntally "Pachelbel Sequence" because of his _Canon in D_ . I'm not sure if Beethoven had heard that given that the "Romanesca Sequence" is a fairly common sequence like the "circle of fifths sequence".

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

"And now, all my music is full of labels, and I can't help it." I can't tell whether you're thankful for this or annoyed by it! I've always found it empowering to be able to recognize the things I hear in music, whether they have a name or not. (Though I've often given things names of my own to help me remember what they are-like the "backtracking predominants" of Video 38.) At any rate, Video 41 will be about the stepwise Romanesca, aka Pachelbel sequence, aka falling-thirds sequence-though my examples will generally be later than the Galant fare that Gjerdingen deals with (e.g., Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, et al.).

@1685Violin

Жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan Would you also do a video dealing with the "5-6 sequence" and it's variants? A few examples are Vivaldi's 2nd movement of his _Winter Concerto_ , Handel's _Messiah_ ( _For unto a Child is Born_ ) , Beethoven's _Wellington's Victory_ , and Spontini's _La Vestale Overture_ .

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

@@1685Violin That's the hypothetical third video I mention at the end (i.e., in addition to the circle-of-fifths and "Pachelbel" sequences, which are definitely the topics of Videos 40 and 41). One of the tricks with the rising 5-6 sequence is that the variants sometimes become so extreme they cease to sound or feel very much like the vanilla, diatonic version. So I'd need to really think carefully about my repertoire and what I want to train my students to hear. (These videos are always, first and foremost, designed with my classroom teaching in mind.) That being said, I'm grateful for the repertoire recommendations; I've already got the Vivaldi movement in my stash, but not the other three!

@1685Violin

Жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan To be fair though, I had been for years confused on what sequence Handel and Beethoven, along with a few other Baroque composers that I can't remember, used and how they constructed. Beethoven was somewhat easy as I only analyzed it with Roman Numeral Analysis but that still left me wondering why he chose using those chords. Handel's was so complex to me at the time that I thought it was to advanced for me to use it in my own compositions. It took me until I started listening to _La Vestale_ and a few lessons in counterpoint two years ago that it motivated me to look up the progression used by Spontini and it caught me by surprised that I had heard the progression for years but didn't recognize and analyze it further until the Spontini piece.

There’s a very nice sequence in the outro music, very common in Bach’s fugal expositions right after the answer in preparation for the third statement of the subject, especially if it’s back in the tonic

that mozart joke at the beginning was comedy gold

🧡🧡💛💛💚💚

Professor, we’re waiting for the next video!

Your videos are truly great. As someone who has just started my masters in music theory after a few years as a working musician, these have been great for brushing up on my harmony knowledge. I watched all your videos in a matter of weeks! I would be curious to know if you have any preferred literature on the subjects you cover in these videos, specifically if you have any reccomendations for books on harmony beyond what you teach here? Schubert, Brahms, Wagner and beyond? Looking forward to seeing your next wave of content over the summer!

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

My sincere thanks for the kind words! Regarding the more advanced chromatic repertoire: there are plenty of rather niche approaches to the chromatic practices of the 19th century. If you're in a masters program in theory, you'll almost surely come across some of them. (I'm thinking, e.g., of Rick Cohn's "Audacious Euphony" and other aspects of transformation theory, now between 10-20 years old, or the endless theoretical navel-gazing [including my own] over the "Tristan" chord, etc.) The problem is that there aren't, to my knowledge, and really good elementary texts that cover the new elements we find in that repertoire in a simple/straightforward way, without staking everything on some shiny new "theory." (In my experience, these theories-for all their usefulness-tend to be overbuilt, limited in application, and vulnerable to explanatory overreach. And again, I'm as guilty of this as anyone in my scholarly work.) I do intend to cover some of these procedures (enharmonic modulation, equal division of the octave, etc) in future videos. But honestly, the best thing you can do for yourself is just analyze pieces that interest you, ideally with someone more experienced that you can check in with about tricky spots. You could spend years analyzing only Schubert and be perpetually amazed by what you find-much of it forward-compatible with innovators like Liszt and Wagner. May I ask where you're doing your MM?

❤

Hi professor! I recently found this series and have been enjoying watching from the beginning! Do you have a plan for how many videos this series will have in total?

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

Hi Sayan-I'm so glad to learn you like the series! I've been posting 4 or 5 new videos every summer for about six years, I think? And I've got plans for at least five more on the topic of harmony. Then I'll probably branch out into form, which could take years. Basically, I'll keep making new videos as long as they're useful for the classes I teach...which might be forever?

@chessematics

Жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan do you only post in summer? When is video 40 coming?

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

@@chessematics My work keeps me too busy to make videos during the school year, unfortunately. (As you can imagine, they're a huge time investment. About 3-4 weeks of full-time work per video these days.) So they only come out in July and August, most years. Not ideal, but it's the best I can do...

@chessematics

Жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan ok. But i do thank you for all these videos of unmatched excellence you've made. Eager see you again next year, until then, time for re-watching.

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

@@chessematics Thanks so much for your support!

Dear Professor, thanks a lot for this amazing series! I already learned a lot from it! I play the piano for a long time but I'm relatively new to music theory. Do you know some material (books, sites, youtube videos, etc) where I could learn more specifically about composition?

I noticed you said that harmonic sequences include everything, harmony and melody. Well, the way I was taught, I was told that harmonic sequences just include the chords and have absolutely nothing to do with the melody. Or in other words, you could have a melody that is clearly non-sequential, one bit of melody doesn't even sound related to the next, but it all harmonically fits, and still call it a sequence because of what's going on with the chords underneath. Or on the other hand that you could have a melody that is also sequential, giving you both a melodic sequence and a harmonic sequence, which is indeed the most common.

Dear professor, I really love the content you created. You are such a man of intelligence, humour and kindness. One question - the series is called "Harmony & Counterpoint", but there hasn't been any videos dedicated to the topic of "Counterpoint" yet. Will there be any in the future? Thank you again!

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

Many thanks for the kind words-I'm delighted that you like the series! As to your question: years back, there were some videos about a species counterpoint method that I devised for my freshmen, paired with a Flash-based interactive eBook. But Flash is dead; the videos were rather amateurish; and I took a new job that has me teaching neither undergraduates nor counterpoint. My current thinking is that "counterpoint," broadly defined, informs many aspects of the current series. It plays a huge part in Lesson 22, but also in any circumstances where I'm hearing bass lines interacting with melodies above. I've met people who insist on making a crisp distinction between "counterpoint," strictly defined, and "voice leading." I'm inclined to think differently. All voice leading is contrapuntal to my ears, and indeed, I'm skeptical about anyone's claims to be able to hear "pure" counterpoint in tonal music, free from harmonic implication. Ultimately, I guess, the term "counterpoint" is in the series title to complement "harmony"-suggesting, in other words, that our concerns will be both linear and vertical, melodic and harmonic. Does that make sense?

@pinacolada2386

Жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan Thank you for your in-depth and thought-provoking response, professor. I totally agree with the idea of a broader definition of "counterpoint" and its assimilation with "harmony" in teachings. I will go back to Lesson 22 and your other videos for rumination. Thank you again and wish you all the best in your life!

Realised only today that the opening and ending bachground piece is the Gigue of A minor partita.

Where can I read more about this topic? So helpful

Seth, your videos are a virtuoso performance with today's computer tools. Excellent editing, musical audio examples, illustrations with musical notation, video effects and more. Can you talk a bit how you put these together including how to use audio clips without running afoul of licensing/copywrite issues? Thanks and keep them coming!

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

Many thanks for the kind words! Here’s how the assembly line works: 1. I make all my musical examples in Sibelius and export these to eps format. 2. I use Adobe Illustrator to further tweak/fine tune these. Basically, Illustrator lets me manipulate the eps exports in any way I want. For instance: sometimes I’ll want a part of a score to disappear while I’m talking. So I use Illustrator to carve the example up into several discrete parts, which I can then treat as separate objects in Keynote. 3. I pre-record much of the in-video piano using one or another virtual instrument harnessed through Garage Band. (I could play the piano live during step [4], but I get stressed out and make too many mistakes.) 4. Keynote is where I assemble the actual slideshows, using graphics exported from Illustrator, sound files exported from Audacity, and the in-app drawing tools of Keynote itself, which are surprisingly good. In a nutshell, Keynote lets me do the three things I need to make the videos happen: (1) stuff appears; (2) stuff disappears; and occasionally (3) stuff moves. 5. I then record the video using Camtasia, which captures the onscreen slideshow along with audio from (1) a USB Yeti Blue microphone and occasionally (2) a MIDI keyboard that I mounted under my desktop, which lets me talk, play, and advance the slideshow simultaneously. I usually do one long take and then spend a few hours editing it down to a 15-30 minute video. It may also be worth mentioning that scripting the videos ahead of time makes it easy to upload captions to KZread. As for copyright: until very recently, I made no money off the channel, placing the audio excerpts squarely within the domain of "fair use," at least as KZread defines it. Still, every time I post a video, bots find all of the copyrighted content and usually generate one or two copyright violation warnings. I've been able to dispute and win nearly every time. But as an experiment, I tried monetizing the channel in January 2023. Turns out all many of the copyright disputes made the videos in question "unmonetizable." So be it. I'm not in it for the views or the cash. I just think that serious students deserve robust educational material, something more than throwaway clickbait cheat-sheets pitched to the shortest attention span in the room.

@danlight2684

Жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan A veritable arsenal of tools! Virtuoso display of technical brilliance for its own sake would have been a waste but your work demonstrates the synergy that comes about when its put in service to a superior end product. I should think your colleagues are chagrinned when comparing their lectures to these videos. Textbook publishers take note: this is a quantum leap forward - get on board. I hope you encourage your graduate students to become as fluent with these technologies as you are. Thank you and keep 'em coming.

@danlight2684

Жыл бұрын

Thx again for your detailed reply on how you make your videos. I've taken much of it to heart but and am still flummoxed as to how you capture/obtain examples of commercial recordings (e.g. Mitsuko Uchida playing piano). Audacity will let me mix narration and music but how do you get the musical recordings onto your computer to begin with? There's gotta be a publisher of some sort out there who can help you figure out how to overcome the copywrite/licensing issues because your stuff is pure gold!

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

I can capture Ms. Uchida and others in several ways. I mostly just use the AudioHijack app, which lets you record all system audio or just that of select apps. (I just play things in Spotify, and the app does the rest. Then I can tweak the files in Audacity.) But I'm also enough of a dinosaur that I used to own many thousands of CDs, back in the early 2000s. Before I sold them to the Princeton Record Exchange for pennies on the dollar, I ripped all of them to a hard drive. It took a whole year, but now I have an archive of mp3s on hand that includes most important works in the Western canon.

@danlight2684

Жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan My thx again. The quality of the recorded examples is clear and flawless. I just don't see how we can go back to textbooks after the tour de force example you've set with such mastery of computerized tools. BTW, Dr. Robert Greenberg's music history lectures on The Teaching Company use comparatively little use of technology but like you, he is an extraordinary presenter. If the two of you were collaborate the result would be non plus ultra synergy. I envision a sort of musicological jam session in which the two of you riff on a variety of topics for our edification.

lovely, can't wait for the circle of fifths

While I'm writing a sequence of involving Dies Irae, starting on F and going up the A minor scale by 1 step, i find that it sounds awkward if i keep the G# of the harmonic minor in the 1st copy (G# F G# E). Is it ok to replace that with G♮ to keep the sound good?

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

Are you trying to compose in a historical style? Because I think 18th/19th century composers would also probably find G#-F-G#-E awkward in a melodic sequence. But if you're composing your own music, only you get to say what's "OK" and what's not.

@chessematics

Жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan i don't know if one can call it "historical style" but yeah it's in the classical style (including a few neighbour styles like baroque and romantic). A flute sonata with cello accompaniment, the first movement is in A minor. A pretty terrifying experience that would lead to salvage and even triumph in the later movements. So the sonata-allegro first movement will have this "Confutatis" bassline (kind of stealing the ostinato in the strings by Mozart) with the flute playing Dies Irae on top. The bassline goes (2/4 time) ||: touch(G# A B)C--- C C | touch(C B)A--- A A :|| and this (including repeat) rises by step in sequence. The Dies Irae comes in as | F --- E --- | F --- D ---| and rises in sequence with the tormented bass. So in the first copy it has to start on G. So the question is, is it ok to use G natural in the sequence, because G# is definitely offending my ears. Or, should i turn it into the melodic minor with F#? The G# is rather good in the 2nd and 3rd copies that go A G# A F and B A B G#. It's not like "i want to do it, so I'll do it", i actually want to manifest what I've learnt so far in classical music thanks to you and the others.

Would it be wrong to think of the harmonic sequences as sections of new keys? For instance, in the Haydn minuet example (8:15), we could think of it as repetitions of i - iv6/5, in different keys. C minor: i - iv6/5 - B flat major: I - iv6/5 - A flat major: I - iv6/5 - G major: I (C minor: V). No?

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

Alas, I do think that's the wrong way of thinking about it, since it doesn't seem to take musical experience into account. One has to ask: why would any listener hear four key changes in those bars? Being "in a key" is not a matter of mere labeling. One needs to have auditory signals that a new note is acting as tonic. And that nearly always requires the dominant harmony of the new key, which has a "pointing" function vis-a-vis the new tonic note. (The analysis you propose would be different in degree, but not in kind, if one suggested that EVERY chord in the sequence were a new tonic: C minor: i...F minor: i6/5...Bb: I...Eb...I6/5...Ab: I...and so on.) That being said: there are chromatic sequences that interfere so strongly with our sense of "being in a key" that one might well ask whether we were changing keys with each new copy. Let me rummage around a bit, and if I find one in my files, I'll share.

hi can you please add a playlist on your channel and put all the videos in the playlist.

Here's a sequence with chromaticism, from M. Haydn requiem kzread.info/dash/bejne/dq6hzJqlgq-umJM.html

Have been waiting for update for the last 7 months. Anyone else?

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

I've got a full-time University job; I can only make videos in the summer!

@mingzhong5481

Жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan I can certainly wait another 3 months. :)

When is 40 coming!

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

My teaching schedule only lets me make videos in the summer, unfortunately. I try to make between four and six every year.