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Composer-Pianist Robert Cunningham

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ModesMusic TheoryPreludesRomance for Oboe and Piano
May 2, 2017 Robert Cunningham

Music à la Mode

In medieval and Renaissance times, before tonality developed into its modern form, Western music was based on a system of

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Music TheoryPreludes
April 14, 2017 Robert Cunningham

The Magic of Octave Displacement

As I pointed out in my very first post to this blog, if two pitches are an octave apart, the

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CounterpointSonatas
March 13, 2017 Robert Cunningham

Time Travel in Music: Rounds and Fugues

Our last two blog posts looked at how two or more distinct melodies can be juxtaposed in counterpoint. But it

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CounterpointPreludes
February 20, 2017 Robert Cunningham

Melody and Countermelody

We saw in the last blog post how the melody “Puff the Magic Dragon” fits neatly in counterpoint with the

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Counterpoint
January 27, 2017 Robert Cunningham

Punctus contra Punctus

One of the most important devices in a good composer’s toolbox is counterpoint, the art of combining two or more

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Music TheoryPreludes
January 12, 2017 Robert Cunningham

Directional Tonality

Most tonal pieces start in the “home key” — the “tonic,” as musicians call it — and return to it

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Life and Career of Robert CunninghamRomanticism
December 26, 2016 Robert Cunningham

Growing up as a Romantic Composer in an Anti-Romantic Age

I decided at a very young age that I would become a composer and started writing little compositions from age

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Romanticism
November 29, 2016 Robert Cunningham

The Great Darkness: Romanticism in the Mid-20th Century

Younger Romantic composers today may not understand the virulent anti-Romanticism and opposition to tonal composition that pervaded the musical establishment

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Romanticism
November 15, 2016 Robert Cunningham

Rachmaninoff and the Twentieth Century

During much of the last century, Romanticism and tonality were held in virtual contempt by most of the musical establishment,

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Romanticism
October 23, 2016 Robert Cunningham

What is Romanticism?

My music fits squarely within the movement known as Romanticism. Musical Romanticism is customarily associated with the nineteenth century and

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Music TheoryOctatonic
September 27, 2016 Robert Cunningham

Pieces of Eight

Most musicians are familiar with the seven-tone diatonic set, which determines the pitches for a major scale or a natural

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Foundations of MusicMeterMusic TheoryPreludes
September 18, 2016 Robert Cunningham

SEVEN: Life at Meter’s Outer Limit

I related the “Seven Plus or Minus Two” principle to pitches and harmonic centers in an earlier post to this

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Music Theory
September 8, 2016 Robert Cunningham

Dissonance versus Atonality

Non-musicians sometimes confuse dissonance with atonality. As a tonal Romantic composer, I like to highlight the difference using an analogy

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Foundations of MusicMusic Theory
August 25, 2016 Robert Cunningham

SEVEN: The Magic Number of Harmony

In this blog’s first post, we looked at the physics behind our harmonic/melodic system. But music isn’t just a physical

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Foundations of Music
August 16, 2016 Robert Cunningham

Math’s Gift to Musicians

Is music just a cultural product, or does it also have roots in nature? I contend that the tonal system

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Music Blog

  • Life and Career of Robert Cunningham
  • Music Theory
    • Counterpoint
    • Foundations of Music
    • Harmony
    • Melody
      • Melodic Transformation
    • Meter
    • Modes
    • Octatonic
    • Rhythm
    • Schenkerian Analysis
  • Romanticism
  • Technology and Music
  • The Composer's Craft
  • The Performer's Craft
  • Uncategorized
  • Works by Robert Cunningham
    • Adagio for Violin and Piano
    • Horn Trio
    • Lament for Flute and Piano
    • Meditation
    • Nocturne for Woodwinds and Piano
    • Nocturne No. 1 for Piano
    • Nocturne No. 2 for Piano
    • Piano Quartet
    • Poems
    • Preludes
    • Rhapsody for Woodwinds and Piano
    • Romance for Clarinet and Piano
    • Romance for Oboe and Piano
    • Sonatas
      • Piano Sonata No. 1
      • Piano Sonata No. 3
      • Piano Sonata No. 4
      • Sonata for Oboe and Piano
    • Sonnet XVIII
    • Variations for Flute and Piano
    • Vocal/Choral Works

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Recent Posts

  • The Story of Piano Sonata No. 1
  • The Octatonic Collection in the Piano Quartet
  • Thematic Transformation in the Piano Quartet
  • Tonal Structure of the Piano Quartet
  • My Aesthetic Goals in the Piano Quartet
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