Modulation (Dover Books On Music: Analysis)

Although Max Reger's 100+ examples all end with some flavor of either a V-I or vii-I chord progression, I would classify more than half of them as transitions from one key to another rather than a transition from one key to another with an exclamatory cadential ending. The book is a usable reference, but not for the beginning student of harmony or music theory. Line and smooth harmonic transition in his examples are frequently sacrificed apparently in the interest of brevity.Despite the negativity of the paragraph above, this little book proved to be a very valuable addition to my reference library, but not in the way I expected it would. I bought the book to use as a quick reference for a modulation while I was composing music, but found that it was far from the cookbook tool I expected. Some of Reger's examples proved to have either a harsh, incomplete, or unconvincing cadential sound, and that spurred me to work to make them less harsh and more complete sounding to the ear with a strong cadential ending.In those efforts I found the real value in Max Reger's work. I reworked 63 of the 100+ examples to make each smoother, more complete, and/or more convincing, and that's where the real learning took place. I now have a "library" of modulations which I can draw upon whenever I need to. I strongly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in music composition or analysis as a study guide to really teaching yourself all about transitions and modulations. However, I make this recommendation with a strong warning that it is not a cookbook for writing music with smooth, flowing transitions.Spend the $7 for the book and then use it to teach yourself modulations and transitions by creating your own set of reference modulations based upon Reger's. Be economical and try to improve on an example with as few additional beats as possible. Unless you are a budding Mozart, that process may take a considerable amount of time, but it will be time well spent.

This book is essentially a cookbook of modulation recipes, which is precisely what I was looking for. It will not suffice alone to achieve an understanding of modulation. But if what you want is an inventory of working modulations from any given key to any other given key, then this is a good choice. Naturally, it doesn't exhaust the possibilities, but it is a valuable exercise all the same. Every beginning student should have a copy, because it really helps to understand modulation to see it in this very bare form. Modulation in the wild, in the hands of composers like Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert, Bach, or others is often too complex for a beginning student to fully grasp. The modulations in Reger's text are largely stripped of ornamentation and the sequence from one key to the next is so brief that the relation between the two keys is foregrounded. I gave this four out of five because it is what I was looking for, but it would be nice to have more footnotes, and a little more content by way of introduction or exposition. Don't let that discourage you. The text is well worth the small price it retails for on Amazon!

I have owned a copy of this little gem for most of my life. I just bought a new one to replace my last ancient and tattered edition. Playing through the examples is more delicious than total body immersion in a tub filled with a rich Belgian dark chocolate sauce. When I was in music school almost fifty years ago, I wrote a piece for composition class that modulated from C major to C# major. I was told by my professor that it couldn't be done elegantly. Nobody knows his name.

The book is a collection of examples of how to modulate from one key to another. When I am composing and a chord that is common to both keys that can be used for a modulation isn't readily apparent, I will check to see what he used and go from there.Unfortunately, Amazon placed it in a flimsy padded envelope without any cardboard for stiffening and the book arrived bent in several places (the book is rather thin).

Dozens of good examples for every type of modulations.You may use for study harmony or to explain to your students.

100 examples of modulation from keys. What's great is that there is a formula for the actual change under each example, but I would add an arrow or something on the musical staff actually pointing out the accidental tones. But with a little attention, it can be figured out easily enough. Good for theoretical understanding, but I personally lost interest in actually playing the examples. But hey man, do you.

This is the supplement to Reger's book on modulation. It contains examples of modulation in all the keys, but I'm really interested in the larger book, which is P.O.P. Oh well, this is a handy reference anyway, just not the entire large work. Useful, though.

Interesting ideas on modulation, most are using the Neapolitan chord or bII chord. There are some very nice modulations which are well worth your time to look over.

Excellent book on the very rare subject of musical modulation. For some reason very few books are available on this, though this book is not easy to place on music stand as it's glued spine format. Would be far better A4 stapled format.

This little book seems at first sight to be a 'cookbook' -- to achieve X do Y. But reflective study opens a window or the (sometimes baffling) world of harmonic journeys. Illuminating.

A must read for all composers interested in extending there harmonic abilities. A fascinating read!

delivered on time. . .product as advertised. . .a fine product

Great little book. Very logical sequence of modulations from most common to most remote, in the shortest possible number of steps. Very brief commentary to explain each modulation. Technique is to find a chord chord common to both keys.