How much music theory knowledge is necessary to study medieval music?
I agree with Delicio – the interwoven lines of medieval music are often functioning on a level that one does not appreciate without a decent background. Tell you what – get yourself a copy of Gradus ad Parnassum by FUX (that is pronounced FOOKS, so you do not get into trouble. Betcha that Yahoo *cleans up* the spelling!). It is the book that Mozart’s teacher used to teach HIM – and countless thousands of other have learned from it. IT goes through the forms of *species counterpoint* – how melodies are built to weave around each other – in a Master and Pupil dialogue. Yes, it can be dry – but see how much of it you can comprehend on your own. If you have a sense of “Ah, Little Grasshopper, see if you can take the cola nuts from my hand!”, then it makes it easier to read – we have all seen those kinds of martial-arts learning movies! This can be VERY interesting – my son is getting his MM in Digital Music, and for an elective, decided he needed sometime REALLY different than all the Fina
