Rating: 
Summary: A classic text, not dumbed down
Review: As the other reviews make clear, you'll only like this book if you truly want to study harmony! Those who do tend to give the book high marks.I read the book on my own, because I was finding that in my other reading about classical music I was encountering ideas and terminology that I didn't understand. For this purpose, it really helped me a lot to read Piston. The examples, taken from throughout the history of classical music, are intriguing and helpful as illustrations.
Rating:
Summary: A classic text, not dumbed down
Review: As the other reviews make clear, you'll only like this book if you truly want to study harmony! Those who do tend to give the book high marks. I read the book on my own, because I was finding that in my other reading about classical music I was encountering ideas and terminology that I didn't understand. For this purpose, it really helped me a lot to read Piston. The examples, taken from throughout the history of classical music, are intriguing and helpful as illustrations.
Rating: 
Summary: The most over-praised musical textbook of the 20ty centruy
Review: I had this text for my second semester for 5 part diatonic harmony. There are those texts where one underlines or highlights parts of the book. This whole book was underlined and highlighted. Gives vexing tedium a new definition. I know, I know "It's a college text", it was still a very difficult text to digest.
Rating:
Summary: The Bane of my Existance
Review: I had this text for my second semester for 5 part diatonic harmony. There are those texts where one underlines or highlights parts of the book. This whole book was underlined and highlighted. Gives vexing tedium a new definition. I know, I know "It's a college text", it was still a very difficult text to digest.
Rating: 
Summary: One Approach To Harmony Instruction
Review: I'm hearing a lot of politics and bad music school flashbacks from some of these reviews of Piston's Harmony, but I think the book's usefulness depends on what you're looking to learn. When I first came across the book (late 70's, early 80's) I was more interested in composition than performing or analysing existing music. Piston's Harmony teaches by demonstrating snapshots of particular harmonic practices from more or less standard classical pieces. These illustrations are then combined with variations on figured bass or melody harmonization exercises. For what I was interested in at the time, this approach left little room for creativity. A composer-friend suggested Schoenberg's Theory of Harmmony, which approaches harmony from the standpoint of a beginning composer learning the craft of connecting chords and gradually mastering the material by composing his own chord progressions. There are no illustrations of existing pieces and no "half-filled in" exercises to complete. Sure, there are also pages of Schoenberg's rants and diatribes to wade through (what a blogger he would have made!), but this approach made sense to me and I was on my way.
So why four stars for Piston? Well, years later as a player and lifelong student, I became more interested in understanding existing tonal music. I came back to Piston and discovered that I was now more familiar with many of the examples and could better appreciate the harmonic effects as one aspect in the overall context of the whole piece of music. For myself, the written exercises still have limited value, although I feel better prepared for them and, as Schoenberg himself might have said, worked on seriously they won't do anyone harm.
Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: If you feel that your knowledge in harmony is incomplete, that is the right book for you! It is very systematic and not hard at all(even for me: english is not my mother tongue) Some people complain about the fact, that it is dry.Well what do they expect from a harmony book? It gives you all the knowledge you need starting from zero, building it gradually to more sophisticated exercises. You really don't have to be super-intelligent to be able to understand it, you just have to work on it systematically and with discipline, you might even enjoy it (I did) By the time you finish the book, you will not feel anymore that your knowledge in harmony is insufficient, on the contrary the word harmony will be more associated as a friend than as an enemy.
Rating:
Summary: Take all reviews with a grain of salt....
Review: Interesting to read the reviews about this book. Just because a book is "hard" or confuses you doesn't mean it's a bad book. Look, I'm a professional musician, composer and teacher. This book is the most complete and best harmony text out there. There's plenty of room for personal preference, and it's probably not fair to say one book is better than another. This book, however, is truly exceptional, and the 5th edition is the best so far. BTW, I taught myself harmony from this book when I was in high school (with the guidance of a teacher reviewing my exercises) and tested out of all theory at a prestigious university. Basically I got the equivalent of an undergrad theory background from studying this text.
Rating:
Summary: prefer the original
Review: It's very sad to see vital books "updated" and "revised" to accomodate the careers of persons manifestly unable to create vital books themselves. See if you can get hold of an edition really written by Walter Piston instead. If not, the Ottman is serviceable.
Rating:
Summary: Take all reviews with a grain of salt....
Review: Pay no attention to the reviews bashing this book. True, it IS a hard book, but once you've made your way through this book from cover to cover, your understanding of music and classical harmony will be SO much stronger. The excercizes are thoughtful and offer many challenges, which help to enforce the points taught in each chapter. And it isn't TOO hard. I'm a junior in high school (and a DRUMMER, to boot), and I've really enjoyed this book thus far (I'm on chapter 14). Grab this book. With the proper amount of dedication paid to it, it will serve you well.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best.
Review: Pay no attention to the reviews bashing this book. True, it IS a hard book, but once you've made your way through this book from cover to cover, your understanding of music and classical harmony will be SO much stronger. The excercizes are thoughtful and offer many challenges, which help to enforce the points taught in each chapter. And it isn't TOO hard. I'm a junior in high school (and a DRUMMER, to boot), and I've really enjoyed this book thus far (I'm on chapter 14). Grab this book. With the proper amount of dedication paid to it, it will serve you well.
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