Theory I - Mr. Park
This is the only class which meets more than once per week. I, along with eight other freshmen and two sophomores who were in Theory Fundamentals last year, have an hour each with Mr. Park on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. If I had spent more time reviewing music theory last spring before my audition, or even this summer and then taken a second placement exam, I am pretty certain I could have tested into Theory II as I’ve studied music theory to quite a high level previously. However, I’m actually glad that I did not do this because I am able to understand everything Mr. Park says – something about the way he teaches just instantly makes sense to me – and many facets of the subject are connecting in ways that they never did before. I believe I am actually somewhat unusual in this regard as most other people in my class find it incredibly challenging. Mr. Park generally does teach first-year theory, so I believe he is pushing this class rather significantly faster than most of the other Theory I teachers.
The work itself is divided into two main areas. The first is Harmony, which I had studied extensively at home; the second is Counterpoint, which I’d hardly even realized was still a skill that anyone used. Harmony is quite easy for me and involves the relationships between chords – which come after which and how to arrange them. An excellent example of practical use would be any hymn written before about 1970. There are many rules about which notes in the chord can move where and when they can do the moving, but most of it comes naturally once one understands the system.
Counterpoint is an entirely different animal. Along with the solfége in Ear Training, it is one of the few things I’m studying which actually is VERY HARD. The modern purpose of it is to learn about writing melodies and to more fully understand how polyphonic (multi-melody) music works. It is an old method, something used prior to the 16th century, and the system of music harmony is built on top of it. Therefore something like a Bach fugue, while containing harmonic elements, is primarily a work using counterpoint. A piece by Mozart is harmonically-based, but everything in it still conforms to the rules of counterpoint.
Without going into boring details, our work on this subject involves being given a melody (the ‘cantus firmus’) in whole notes and then writing another melody, which must fit within certain – extremely strict – guidelines regarding rhythm and pitch. In itself there’s nothing too complicated; follow the rules and everything will fall into place. However, while most classes are given the cantus firmus in written form and then allowed a certain amount of time to work out on paper the additional voice(s), Mr. Park is infamous in this school for what is known as ‘mental counterpoint’. This means his students hear the cantus once from him at the piano (twice if he’s in a good mood) and must memorize it instantly. We are then permitted a short period of time, which varies depending on the complexity of the exercise but currently is about three minutes, to mentally (no paper allowed!) construct the additional melodies and then an even shorter period to write everything down. Most everyone in the school considers this as exceedingly sadistic, but no one doubts that his students have by far the strongest counterpoint knowledge.
