Beyond Harmony: An Introduction to Analysis of Form & Structure in Music

Aspiring professional musicians acquire knowledge of a number of diverse topics that fall under the broad heading of music theory. Following the study of harmony, music students typically apply and extend that knowledge to topics as diverse as form, counterpoint, instrumentation, composition, and twentieth century techniques. Selecting and purchasing texts and materials for a course covering a variety of topics can be challenging and expensive.

Beyond Harmony: An Introduction to Analysis of Form and Structure in Music addresses a number of topics that is often included in the second or third year of undergraduate music theory. In addition, unlike most books on the market, it includes an emphasis on hypermeter and irregular phrase lengths in the study of phrase structure and a chapter of form in popular music.

Featuring musical excerpts drawn from diverse genres — including art music, jazz, and popular music, Gabriel Fankhauser and William Harbinson’s Beyond Harmony:

• Is Flexible! The chapters are arranged to provide flexibility for the individual instructor who desires to cover some but not all topics.
• Is Practical! Appendices offer a review of common practice harmony and the fundamentals of instrumentation and arranging.
• Is Effective! The text’s balance between verbal explanation and other modes of presentation accommodates different learning styles and promotes direct engagement with the music.
• Is Interactive! An accompanying website includes accessible musical scores, audio links, analytical templates to assist the student with the process of formal analysis, glossary of terms, and much more.

Beyond Harmony: An Introduction to Analysis of Form and Structure in Music is divided into three parts:

• Part I introduces the student to texture, melodic structure, and motivic variation and development.
• Part II covers contrapuntal techniques including harmonic analysis in a contrapuntal texture, imitation, sequences, invertible counterpoint, and fugue.
• Part III focuses on analysis of form in homophonic music: cadences, phrases, periodic structure, binary form, ternary form, variation forms, sonata form, and rondo form.