Gradus ad Parnassum

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Gradus ad Parnassum ( step or steps to Parnassus , a mountain in central Greece , which is considered the seat of the muses ) is the main work of music theory by Johann Joseph Fux published in 1725 .

The work, written in Latin, with the full title Gradus ad parnassum sive manuductio ad compositionem musicae regularem, method nova, ac certa, nondum ante tam exacto ordine in lucem edita , is an old-style textbook of counterpoint in dialogue form. The pupil Joseph ( Johann Joseph Fux ) asks questions that Aloysius ( Giovanni Pietro Aloisio Sante da Palestrina ) answers. The Vienna School , a pre-or early form of the Viennese Classic , was strongly influenced by this work. It spread quickly and was translated into various languages, including a German translation by a student of Johann Sebastian Bach , the music theorist Lorenz Christoph Mizler , from 1742. By Leopold Mozart , who used the book to teach his son Wolfgang , Joseph Haydn and Padre Martini have received registered annotations.

Between 1817 and 1826 Muzio Clementi wrote a piano textbook of the same name, which consists of 100 studies or etudes . In the first piece of his work Children's Corner , Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum , Claude Debussy ironically took up these piano exercises and Fux's counterpoint theory in 1908. Hanns Eisler also mentions his Sonatina op.44, composed in 1934 .

A collection of 24 studies for double bass , written by Franz Simandl, is also called “Gradus ad Parnassum” .

Remarks

  1. ^ German title in the translation by Lorenz Christoph Mizler, Leipzig 1742: Gradus ad Parnassvm or an introduction to the regular musical composition. In a new, certain, and so far never brought to light in such a clear order
  2. ↑ Barbara Boisits, Klaus Hubmann: Music making practice in Biedermeier: specifics and context of a supposedly familiar epoch . P. 113

literature

  • Johann Joseph Fux : Gradus ad Parnassum or an introduction to the regular musical composition . Olms, Hildesheim 2004, ISBN 3-487-05209-1 (reprint of the Leipzig 1742 edition).
  • Muzio Clementi : Gradus ad Parnassum for piano . Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2004 (reprint of the Leipzig 1900 edition).

Web links