A Blended Approach of Historical Improvisation and Modern Rules in Renaissance Counterpoint
Dr Frauke Jürgensen, School of Language, Literature, Music, and Visual Culture
Renaissance counterpoint has been at the core of composition teaching in Western music for over 500 years, imparting skills that are important for composing, analysing, and understanding a wide range of music. Pressures on the curriculum mean that a course that ideally takes several years is compressed into 20 sessions. Counterpoint was originally taught through vocal improvisation, but as musical styles changed, modern teaching methods were developed, which rely on the memorisation of many rules. This is stressful for students, and ultimately less effective. Recent research in the reconstruction of historical improvisation inspired me to develop a blended approach
