26/05/08
Hi Margaret,
Thank you so much for sending me a copy of your book, Harmony
Comes Together. I am so sorry I won’t be able to make
it to the launch. When I opened the front cover of your book,
and started rifling through the pages, I almost wept - with
appreciation, but also the deep ache of remembering my early
years of learning Harmony – how lean and Spartan an experience
that was!!
I
was taught Harmony from J.A. Steele’s Harmony for Students
– a criminally dull book with font size of about 3½,
and so serious and constipated that if you missed a comma, or
God forbid - a conjunction in the text, you’d end up drowning
in a sea of consecutives. And I did just that, thanks to Steele.
The other less serious tomes were still as dry as bones and
acute torture to the eyes and mind. I even suffered through
the much revered, Oxford Harmony – and can honestly say
it would have been more interesting watching the lawn grow than
trying to survive a single paragraph of that book. When it comes
to 4 part harmony, there seems to have been a universal pact
amongst educationalists (since the Baroque period) to be sad,
drab and inaccessible.
But, you have actually thrown open the curtains!
For
a start, your colours are a banquet for the eyes. The rich reds
and blues demand attention and truly are very functional in
highlighting important points- eg. the Sounds to Avoid section
in fire-engine red, complete with evil cross-bone symbols. This
section is so well set out, so easy to understand and so beautifully
presented. Every detail is self-evident - given the clear diagrams
and explanations: overlapping of voices, false relation, avoiding
augmented intervals, doubling the major 3rd and so on. The colour-coded
explanation of consecutives on p.30 is like manna from heaven!
Teachers will be able to put down their red biros forever.
Your
book really has the WOW factor! You explain absolutely everything,
methodically and meticulously. The explanation of the different
terms and labels used by both the British and American systems
will be most appreciated, given the introduction of the new
AMEB Music Craft syllabus.
I
also really enjoyed reading the “emergency voicings”
section for the problematic progressions - complete with emergency
fire-truck symbols. There is something so very appealing and
delicious about every page that it actually makes you want to
keep browsing and picking bits from here and there. Quite a
modern-day miracle for a harmony book to have that affect on
anyone!
Congratulations
Margaret. I will try, at some stage over the next couple of
months, to write a review for publication that does justice
to your ground-breaking book. It’s on my bedside table
now – having just dethroned my current novel. These are
obviously not normal times. When your book hits the shops, I
expect traffic to stop, eclipses will transform the skies, trees
will wind themselves around lampposts, and music teachers and
students will be smiling all over Australia!
bravo,and best wishes,
Abe
Cytrynowski
From
Kerin Bailey 13/06/2008
Dear
Marg
Thanks for sending me a copy of your text Harmony
Comes Together. What an appropriate title!
Having
long been an admirer (and promoter) of your methods –
which in many ways mirror my own – I am still mightily
impressed.
The
presentation is superb from cover to cover, the layout clear,
concise and extremely user-friendly – I especially like
your colour coding and combination of traditional and modern
methods.
It’s
enough to make me want to teach traditional harmony again!!
Congratulations
on such a wonderful effort and best wishes for the launch –
sorry I can’t be there.
Regards
Kerin
