My guest today is Professor Job IJzerman! He teaches at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He is known for his popular book, “Harmony, Counterpoint, Partimento” Published by Oxford University Press in 2018.

0:38 Background 1:50 Did you improvise or compose growing up? 2:12 Did you have any experience with thoroughbass or basso continuo? 2:36 Two anecdotes that highlighted the need for harmony pedagogy reform at the conservatory for IJzerman 7:07 Being introduced to Robert Gjerdingen’s work and partimento in 2007 9:09 What steps did you take to put the partimento theory into practice 10:31 Can Partimento be applied to other styles than the Galant style? 12:33 How was the reception to your new method among students? 16:55 Where did you take your partimenti and solfeggi exercises from? 19:57 What duration is the course of study in your book designed to encompass? 20:43 From your observation, how does your new method compare with the standard conservatory method instruction in harmony? 24:27 Do you examples of students who studied harmony in a different but have converted to your new method? 25:57 How have your peers in the faculty responded to the method? 28:10 Do you receive emails from professors around the world about the book and what has been the reception? 30:23 Karst de Jong 31:22 Peter van Tour 32:16 Do you separate the study of Harmony and Counterpoint? 34:57 Should musicians who are learning music of the Common Practice Era study Renaissance music? 35:54 What are the differences and overlap among the Italian Partimento, and German and French Thoroughbass traditions? 38:01 German Thoroughbass and Italian Partimento 39:19 Music Schemata Theory and Partimento 44:46 Hexachordal 18th century Italian Solfeggio 48:30 How did you jump from the 16th century hexachordal solfeggio method to the updated 18th century version? 49:33 Mutating up vs down being different 50:10 Differences and overlap with Move-able Do and 18th century Italian Solfeggio 51:36 How should someone start learning 18th century Italian Solfeggio 54:30 What’s the way to learn how to mutate between Hexachords correctly? 55:43 Understanding which syllables are part of a melisma and long diminutions 57:32 When accidentals appear in the bass and the Solfeggio changes key, do you have to change all the notes of the hexachords on the spot? 59:14 Do you use the original names of the keys like C-solfaut? 59:34 Can you navigate through a Solfeggio with the correct syllables on a first read through? 1:01:58 What is the best way to learn Partimento? 1:05:53 Job IJzerman demonstrating some patterns at the piano 1:07:40 What’s the best way to learn Counterpoint? 1:08:26 Should you sing and play music extensively first before embarking on written counterpoint? 1:09:40 IJzerman’s method of teaching Counterpoint 1:11:29 Does this lead into 18th century and 19th century Counterpoint? 1:12:21 Should we learn music at the beginning with 2 voices or 4 voices? 1:16:38 Is Partimento practice and theory useful for learning and analysing the music of later styles? 1:19:42 Wrapping Up