# Where to Learn Harmony/Music Theory since the Romantic Era



## herman49

I've found that a lot of music theory textbooks spend most of the time talking about the classical and baroque eras and then very briefly skim through ideas since the romantic era.

When it comes to chromatic harmony, there's often just a chapter or two on the neapolitan, augmented sixth, and then that's it.

However, certainly film music such as that of John Williams and a lot of modern pop music seems to go beyond what's covered in most of the music theory books. Even in classical music, not only Wagner but also Brahms uses complex harmony. And needless to say, those like Debussy and Stravinsky go well beyond the standard theory.

So, my question is, once you've finished with what's covered in standard music theory textbooks, where do you go next?What other topics do you learn? Where do you find this information?


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## Larkenfield

I would suggest that you look up the musical analysis regarding the composers you're most interest in, at least as a starting point. For instance on Debussy:

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https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/comments/1twpfp

Other resources mentioned in the Debussy article:
Schenker Guide: A Brief Handbook and Website for Schenkerian Analysis
Materials and Techniques of 20th Century Music
Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory
A Generative Theory of Tonal Music
Tonality and Transformation
Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations

_In the doing comes the knowing._


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## GraemeG

herman49 said:


> ... a lot of modern pop music seems to go beyond what's covered in most of the music theory books.


I'd be surprised if a lot of modern pop music did much more that I IV V in endless circles!
Graeme


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## Bettina

I recommend Antokoletz's book Twentieth Century Music. It covers the historical and the theoretical elements very well. Here's a link to the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Twentieth-Century-Music-Elliot-Antokoletz/dp/0139341269


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## mikeh375

This is free and worth a read if only to digest the principles.....it is a vast resource of technique.

https://archive.org/details/harmonicmaterial00hans


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## Vox Gabrieli

Forte: Structure of Atonal Music
Mathematical theory of music JEDRZEJEWSKI
The Structure of Atonal Music FORTE
Ear Training for Twentieth-Century Music
Other Harmony: Beyond Tonal and Atonal TOM JOHNSON
Musical Morphology: A Discourse and a Dictionary LEVARIE
Structural Functions of Harmony SCHOENBERG
Theory of Harmony SCHOENBERG
Fundamentals of Musical Composition SCHOENBERG *( Not modern, but ubiquitous in it's teaching* *)
*Music After Modernism LIPMAN *( Not theory, but an interesting take on the modern era of declining music performance. )
*On The Musically Beautiful Eduard Hanslick *( Essential )*

The preceding books are from my personal list, but you can find hundreds more in TC's Music Book Archive ( link provided )


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## VishnuB

These two books are the most pellucid music-theoretical monographs I have ever come across-I cannot recommend them highly enough:

_Musical Structures in Wagnerian Opera_

_Hanbdook of Harmonic Analysis_

Leland Smith's book (_Handbook of Harmonic Analysis_) covers tonal harmony all the way through to its dissolution whereas Marshall Tuttle's book (_Musical Structures in Wagnerian Opera_) focuses on Wagner but reveals a great deal about the tonal system that is not talked about elsewhere as far as I know.


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