Music for Sight Singing

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 352 pages
• Published by: Wadsworth Pub Co; 2nd/Sprl edition January 1994
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0534208231
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0534208233
• Book Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 1.4 pounds

Book Description
Freshman/sophomore music theory is an intimidating and highly technical course for beginning music majors; it may in fact be their first exposure to theory even after many years as performers. Students can become lost in detail and confused by text explanations. Most have difficulty applying theoretical concepts to music. Sight singing and ear training are crucial, related skills which students must develop at the same time as they are mastering theoretical concepts and material.

About The Author
Thomas E. Benjamin has recently retired as Chair of the Department of Music Theory at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. A composer, conductor, performer, and music theorist with more than forty compositions published and recorded, he also holds fellowships and awards from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Michael Horvit is Professor of Composition and Theory at the Moores School of Music, University of Houston. His works range from solo instrumental and vocal pieces to large symphonic and choral compositions and operas, all widely performed in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Israel. He has published with C.F. Peters, MorningStar, Recital Publications, Shawnee Press, E.C. Schirmer, Southern, and Transcontinental, and has CDs with the Albany label. Horvit's awards include the Martha Baird Rockefeller Award as well as the National Endowment for the Arts. Robert S. Nelson teaches music theory and composition at the Moores School of Music, University of Houston. A composer in residence and music director of the Houston Shakespeare Festival for 17 seasons, he has also received numerous commissions for compositions and arrangements for the Houston Symphony Orchestra. --This text refers to the Spiral-bound edition.

Reader Reviews
Of the three texts I have used to teach college-level ear training, this is definitely the weakest. Most of the material is composed by the authors, and it is often ugly, awkward stuff. The chapters could be definitely be sequenced in a more reasonable way (the minor mode, for example, is not introduced until Ch 6) and the level of difficulty is very poorly managed. Indeed, it doesn't seem like the authors have many good ideas about how students actually learn to sight-sing - many of their primitive early exercises (rhythms without meters, melodies that wander randomly up and down the scale) are actually much more difficult than later ones. I would strongly recommend either Richard's Ottman's "Music for Sight-Singing" or Berkowitz-Fontrier-Kraft's "A New Approach to Sight Singing" over this book. Comment | Permalink | (Report this)