Gradus ad Parnassum

Steps to Parnassus, the title of an ancient treatise on counterpoint, serves as the text for this two-part counterpoint. Parnassus is the home in Greek legend of the muses of poetry, music, and learning. The music is intended to be a meditation on learning counterpoint. If my editorial eye is correct, it even follows the rules and conventions of sixteenth century polyphony. In setting the text, I avoided different syllables starting simultaneously, which should make the text easier to understand when sung. There are only two vowels; “a” is most prominent and “u” is the final vowel for the two primary words. I tended to avoid sounding the two vowels simultaneously as well. Click here for an audio file, sung on "oh" rather than the words.