MUSICAL COMPOSITION

TECHNIQUE 21first entries of the subject are complete, are notinferior in interest to the corresponding passagesof a sonata or a symphony. When the study ofharmony (or the science of chord treatment) is tackled,it is of the highest importance to work out exerciseswith a contrapuntal eye, following the same principlesof writing parts at once interesting in themselves, andconducing to movement and avoidance of monotony.Cultivate ease in dealing with inversions and useroots sparingly in the bass. The perpetual insistenceof root basses is one of the greatest pitfalls of thebeginner; it hampers his treatment of the part, whichis second only in importance to the melody, andimpedes the power of free modulation, to which thestudy of hannony is the entrance gate. Into thisdomain it is unnecessary at this point for this treatiseto intrude, as it has to do with the result of technicalstudy for which ample educational literature of alldegrees of merit can be found. The technical equipmentof a composer, then, may be thus summed up inthe order which will best benefit him.1. The study of the pure scale.2. Concurrent counterpoint (including modal counterpoint).3. Harmony and modulation.4. Cross-current counterpoint (canon, fugue, etc.).Just, however, as no school-boy will progress withoutholiday or fresh air, so no budding composer canassimilate or digest all this difficult diet withoutamusing himself mean whiles ; and too much stresscannot be laid on the importance of encouraging himto write anything which suggests itself to him alongsidehis stiff studies. Such temporary freedom keeps