Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom

Sep 22, 2026

Open-licensed four-semester college music theory textbook focused on connecting harmony to phrase structure rather than primarily training four-part (SATB) voiceleading. Emphasizes motivic analysis and melodic units smaller than the phrase, teaching motive, fragment, phrase, and subphrase alongside common melodic alterations such as inversion, intervallic change, augmentation, diminution, rhythmic change, ornamentation, extension, and retrograde. Supports learning from basic pitch and rhythm through twelve-tone technique and minimalism, using popular, film, and musical theater examples.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages553

Reading Time14 h 12 min

AccessFree to download

Acknowledgements

Preface

1 Basic Concepts

1.1 Pitch

1.2 Notation

1.3 Octave Registers

1.4 Accidentals

1.5 Enharmonic Notes

1.6 Practice Exercises

2 Major Scales and Key Signatures

2.1 Half Steps and Whole Steps

2.2 The Major Scale

2.3 Major Key Signatures

Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom Robert Hutchinson University of Puget Sound DRAFT August 23, 2019 DRAFT Website: [musictheory.pugetsound.edu](musictheory.pugetsound.edu)[ ](musictheory.pugetsound.edu)© 2017 Robert Hutchinson Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the appendix entitled “GNU Free Documentation License.” Acknowledgements I owe a huge thanks to Robert Beezer for recommending PreTeXt (formerly“MathBook XML”) as a means to author Music Theory for the 21st–Century Classroom. His work creating the “world” of PreTeXt made it easier than I could have imagined to create this text in all its forms (online, PDF, and print) . Also of incredible value, and without whom this text would not exist, is Jahrme Risner, who helped me wrap my head around the nitty gritty of PreTeXt and patiently coached me through entering commands in the terminal. I wish to thank my colleague, Gwynne Kuhner Brown, for co–piloting the use of this text at the University of Puget Sound and for suggesting extremely helpful clariﬁcations and corrections. Finally, I must thank my wife, Dawn Padula, Director of Vocal Studies atthe University of Puget Sound and musician extraordinaire, for entertaining my endless questions about my choices for musical examples and the clarity of explanations and diagrams. vi Preface Music Theory for the 21st–Century Classroom is an openly–licensed online four–semester college music theory textbook. This text diﬀers from other music theory textbooks by focusing less on four–part (SATB) voiceleading and more on relating harmony to the phrase. Also, in traditional music theory textbooks, there is little emphasis on motivic analysis and analysis of melodic units smaller than the phrase. In my opinion, this led to students having difﬁculty with creating melodies, since the training they are given is typically to write a “melody” in quarter notes in the soprano voice of part writing exercises. When the assignments in those texts ask students to do more than this, the majority of the students struggle to create a melody with continuity and with appropriate placement of harmonies within a phrase because the text had not prepared them to do so. In Music Theory for the 21st–Century Classroom, students learn about motive, fragment, phrase, and subphrase, as well as types of melodic alteration like inversion, intervallic change, augmentation, diminution, rhythmic change, ornamentation, extension, and retrograde. By understanding motive and subphrase (also known as “phrase segment” or “phrase member”), I believe students will better understand the logic and construction of melodies, which will aid them in creating their own music. This text is meant to take the student from the basics of reading and writing pitches and rhythms through twelve–tone technique and minimalism over the course of four semesters. Whenever possible, examples from popular music and music from ﬁlm and musical theater are included to illustrate melodic and harmonic concepts, usually within the context of the phrase. Performances of notated examples are linked to legal, copyrighted YouTube videos with the start and stop time embedded to prevent the instructor the need to search for the passage. The online nature of the text allows links between related concepts (including the index) as well as to relevant pages on the internet. While I have considered creating a unique curriculum for the theory program at my university since 2001, the impetus to create an online music theory textbook that could be of use not only to my students but to students at other colleges came from reading “Transforming Music Study fro

FAQs

What is the core teaching focus of this music theory textbook?

It focuses less on four-part (SATB) voiceleading and more on relating harmony to the phrase, with particular attention to motivic analysis and units smaller than the phrase.

Which melodic concepts and alteration types does the textbook cover?

It teaches motive, fragment, phrase, and subphrase, and it includes melodic alterations such as inversion, intervallic change, augmentation, diminution, rhythmic change, ornamentation, extension, and retrograde.

How does the textbook structure the learning pathway across semesters?

It takes students from foundational skills in reading and writing pitches and rhythms through twelve-tone technique and minimalism over four semesters.

Sep 22, 2026

Uploaded by Oliver Hayes