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Re: Best Music Theory Text

Author: brycon
Date: 2014-08-22 19:42

I think that the Aldwell/Schachter harmony book and Steve Laitz's Complete Musician are the two best theory books on the market (and the most popular with college theory courses). Carl Schachter's counterpoint book is also quite good and makes a good companion to the voice-leading and harmony one.

In general, I find the older theory books more useful as historical documents than textbooks. The Walter Piston, for example, doesn't incorporate any of the basic Schenkerian concepts that are now widely accepted in the theory world and taught in most undergraduate courses. His counterpoint book is even worse (Schoenberg's is quite bad too).

I would get an older edition of the Aldwell/Schachter book (I think the 3rd edition goes for under $30 on amazon) and the Schachter counterpoint book. If you're interested in the Classical era, Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Hadyn, Mozart, and Beethoven by William Caplin is a wonderful book; it requires, however, a decent background with harmony and voice-leading.

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