The Fundamentals of Tonal Music: Concepts and Skills was written to help students better understand and develop proficiency in music fundamentals and to prepare them for further study of music theory. Intended for high school students, beginning college students, and other musicians who desire a greater understanding of music, the text is divided into "Basic Fundamentals," which include basic pitch notation, rhythm, major and minor scales, intervals, triads, and seventh chords, and "Advanced Fundamentals," comprising elementary counterpoint, partwriting, harmonic progression, cadences, phrase structure, common chord modulation, small forms, and a culminating composition project. Five appendices cover "A Summary of Nonharmonic Tones," "A Brief Survey of Six-Four Chords," "Instrumental Transposition and Ranges," "The Secondary Dominant Principle," and "Modes and Non-Tonal Scales." Assignments and exercises are provided in the last section of the text.
Joseph Rivers is Professor of Music and Film Studies at the University of Tulsa, where he teaches composition, film scoring, music theory, and counterpoint. He also directs the Film Scoring program and coordinates student film composers and directors on joint film projects. A professional composer, Rivers has composed music for concert hall, stage, and film. He is a member of BMI, the American Composers Forum, the Society of Composers and Lyricists, the College Music Society, Sigma Alpha Iota (National Arts Associate), and Phi Beta Kappa. Representative compositions include the Concerto for Oboe, English Horn and String Orchestra, perhaps the first concerto for these two solo instruments in combination; the Trio for Violin, Violoncello, and Piano, commissioned by the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association and composed in commemoration of the Oklahoma state centennial in 2007; Echoes of War-Visions of Peace (Symphony No. 1) commissioned and premiered by the Signature Symphony of Tulsa and recorded by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra for release on Vol. 15 of ERMMedia's "Masterworks of the New Era" series; Prairie Dreams, an opera about Oklahoma in pioneer days; Tempests Round Us Gather, a choral work commissioned by the Coventry Chorale of Tulsa in conjunction with the Smithsonian American Museum of Art exhibition, "The Gilded Age"; Will Rogers Self-Portrait, commissioned by the Will Rogers Heritage, Inc. and the Claremore (OK) Community Chorus; Portrait of a Cat, for woodwind trio and dancer with narration, commissioned by the Harwelden Institute for the Arts and premiered by the Council Oak trio, which toured widely in Oklahoma schools; a ballet, The Exile's Return; and Lonely People of the Osage, a choral work about the Osage people near Tulsa. Rivers recently released a CD of his compositions entitled, Nuova Avventura, and completed musical scores for the feature films, Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Bo Bergstrom, and Brother Mine directed by Nathan McLeod.
