Sergei Ivanovich Taneev's "Doctrine of the Canon": A translation and commentary

Abstract

Sergei Ivanovich Taneev's Doctrine of the Canon (Moscow, 1929) is the complement of Convertible Counterpoint in the Strict Style (Moscow, 1909). Both works are unique in the history of music theory due to Taneev's application of algebra for the demonstration of general laws of vertical- and horizontal-shifting counterpoint in the strict style. Together they form the cornerstone of Russian, twentieth-century contrapuntal theory. This dissertation provides a translation of Doctrine of the Canon into English, and commentary. The commentary offers a comparison of Taneev's method with those of his contemporaries, a synthesis of relevant information from Convertible Counterpoint in the Strict Style with information in Doctrine of the Canon, a discussion of political influences on the theories that developed from Doctrine of the Canon, and a summation of developments of Taneev's theories of imitative counterpoint found in the works of the Soviet music theorists Semyon Semyonovich Bogatyryov, Mark Kopytman, Evgeny Nikolaevich Korchinsky, Sergey Sergeevich Skrebkov, and Nikolay Andreevich Timofeev.