Conversation with Professor David Mesquita

My Guest today is Professor David Mesquita, he teaches ear training, sightsinging, Historical satzlehre Renaissance through to the Romantic at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. His research focuses on Spanish Music and music theory, as well as improvised counterpoint.

0:30 What is your background? 1:31 On learning both Fixed Do and Moveable Do growing up at the same time 2:19 Do you have Absolute or Perfect Pitch? 2:49 What repertoire did you use when studying solfege? 4:05 Students who have to solmize but were raised on Fixed Do? 4:32 Can you comment on the Kodaly method? 5:20 What do you think about Hexachordal solfeggio solmization? 6:54 Do you have a preference for a type of solmization? 8:31 How do you teach ear training? 11:36 Is all all aural or is sight singing involved as well? 13:19 How does someone develop their vocabulary in order to improvise counterpoint? 15:54 Does this take years to master? 17:01 How long are the example that you use in the classroom? 17:41 How would you teach a student who begins with zero knowledge? 19:43 What does Contrappunto alla mente mean? 21:48 Was Lusitano a theorist from Spain? 22:34 The Spanish Golden Age - Siglo de Oro 23:53 Is the Spanish Style very different from the Italian style? 25:37 What are the stylistic differences between the Spanish Style and others? 27:33 Were the writers like Soriano Fuertes writing from a perspective of Nationalism? 29:19 Did the Spanish Style go extinct like the partimento tradition? 30:51 Is Renaissance counterpoint useful or applicable for more modern styles of music? 32:01 What commonalities exist between Renaissance counterpoint and later styles? 33:02 Using Renaissance counterpoint as a good base for studying all tonal music 35:28 What are the different levels of expertise in improvised counterpoint and ear training? 36:50 What are the 6 levels of expertise? 38:07 Is improvised counterpoint a separate subject from written counterpoint? 38:39 What’s your opinion on Harmony and Counterpoint, are they two separate subjects? 41:33 Are Harmony and Counterpoint merging in some way today? 41:58 Is there any difficulty applying your process to later Romantic music? 43:58 Do you use different temperaments for different styles of music? 45:48 Do you have a particular frequency that you favor? 46:46 Do you get a physical sensation or awareness of playing in different tunings? 47:48 Does a keyboard in equal temperament sound out of tune for you? 49:04 talking about contrapunto.ch, a website to help practicing improvised counterpoint? 52:08 How do you use the website? 53:28 What’s the best way to learn counterpoint? 54:01 Is there more than 2 voices? 55:35 Available resources, links and teachers to learn counterpoint 57:29 How would you reform music education? 1:00:08 What remaining mysteries about the Spanish style remain for you? 1:02:17 Wrapping Up