Page:Essentials of music theory (1912).djvu/76



In this, the latest of methods for the study of Harmony, the author, Carl E. Gardner, presents a system of training which, both in purpose and plan, provides, what up to the present has frequently been hinted at, but never practically accomplished—a "direct" method for the teaching of music composition.

In the writing of the work the student's practical development has been uppermost in the author's mind and to this end he has provided not a mere treatise on musical grammar, along conventional, hackneyed lines, but a new method which will allow and encourage the student to compose as he advances and develops.

"His work—numbering 161 small pages—is of necessity simply an abbreviated affair. It is soundly done, the work of a man who knows his subject through and through, and it is capitally written." MUSICAL AMERICA.

"The author calls his method the direct method, in that he makes the pupil begin to compose from the beginning instead of after a long and tedious course of technical rules. Time will tell whether this new method will make better composers than the old way or not, but the new method will certainly make the way of the pupil less thorny. The average student will probably enjoy learning composition according to the method by Carl E. Gardner. There is no reason whatever why this method should not be as useful as the long established methods of Jadassohn, Prout, Richter and others who believe in keeping the pupil's nose to the grindstone for several years before furnishing him with wings." MUSICAL COURIER.

"'Music Composition,' a 'new method of harmony,' by Carl E. Gardner, published by Carl Fischer, New York, is a meritorious text book which seeks to combine, in efficient manner, the teaching of simple forms with the customary guidance in chord connection. The abandoning of the isolated manner in which harmony is generally taught and the stimulus of life it undoubtedly receives by joining to it symmetry, rhythm and melody, is undeniably a progress." CANADIAN JOURNAL OF MUSIC.