Rudiments of Music - a music-theory overview

This is a series of articles outlining the basics of music theory.  

They are based on a textbook of the same name, written by Stewart Macpherson (1865–1941), an English-born musician and music-teacher at the Royal Academy of Music, and founder of  the Music Teachers' Association and conductor of the Westminster Orchestral Society in 1885.

The book was originally published in 1903, with revisions in 1910 and 1936, and a revision by Anthony Payne in 1969.  The material presented here is based on the 1936 edition.

(This is a work-in-progress, it is hoped to add some new material, though perhaps not an entire chapter, each week.)



Table of contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Duration of notes
  3. Pitch of Sounds:  The Staff, and Clefs
  4. Pitch of Sounds — Sharps, Flats, 
  5. Accent and Time
  6. Accent and Time — The Grouping of Notes 
  7. Scales — The Major Scale
  8. Scales — The Minor Scale
  9. Scales — The Chromatic Scale
  10. Intervals
  11. Signs of Abbreviation, Embellishment,
  12. Ornaments
  13. Italian and other Terms used in Music
  14. Harmony





Hard-copy versions from Amazon