Cours de composition musicale ou Traité complet et raisonné d'harmonie pratique - Reicha, Anton 1770-1836 (Paris Gambaro, 1818)
"Reicha was appointed professor of counterpoint and fugue at the Conservatoire in 1818. His Cours de composition musicale, ou Traité … d’harmonie pratique, published about 1816-18, replaced Catel’s treatise [Traité d'harmonie, 1802; see 07E73], which had been the official one since 1802. One of the first modern classroom harmony textbooks using examples written expressly for the text, the Cours de composition deals with harmony (tempering the proscription against 5ths and octaves), strict and free music, imitation and orchestration. It stresses the point that theory must be justified by practice and that the pupil must learn about contemporary usage, not solely about ancient principles that diametrically opposed what he heard outside the classroom; these ‘ancient principles’ caused many students to believe wrongly that serious study of composition was useless because free music permitted anything." (Peter Eliot Stone in the New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians)
dédié à Monsieur de la Ferté, Intendant Général de l'Argenterie, Menus-Plaisirs et Affaires de la Chambre du Roi. Par Antoine Reicha, Professeur de Composition à l'École Royale de Musique et de Déclamation
Keywords: Conservatoire de Paris (France); 19th Century (1801-1900); Method; Composing; Harmony; Paris (France)