Peter van Tour (born 1966) is a Dutch musicologist, music historian and music theorist, specializing in Aural Training, Counterpoint and Historical Improvisation. After moving to Sweden in 1990, he co-founded the Gotland School of Music Composition together with Prof. Sven-David Sandström and Ramon Anthin. At this institution, Peter taught counterpoint, aural skills, music analysis, and history of composition. He is best known as an expert in the field of Partimento and is the author of "Counterpoint and Partimento: Methods of Teaching Composition in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples", his doctoral dissertation. Van Tour is an associate professor of Music Theory and Musical Analysis at Örebro University in Sweden.[1]
Education edit
Van Tour has Masters Degrees in Music Pedagogy (Brabant Conservatory, 1988), Musicology (Utrecht University, 1990) and Music Theory (Royal College of Music, Stockholm, 2008). In 2015, van Tour received his PhD in Musicology and Music Theory from Uppsala University, with his dissertation "Counterpoint and Partimento: Methods of Teaching Composition in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples" winning the Hilding Rosenberg Award for Musicology. In 2021 he was awarded the annual research grant of Stiftelsen Thuréus Forskarhem och Naturminne.[1]
Research on Counterpoint and Partimento edit
Van Tour's research has helped identify two different schools of counterpoint instruction among the music conservatories of Naples in the 18th century. These are the school of Leonardo Leo, which emphasized adding counterpoint above or below a cantus firmus and the school of Francesco Durante, which emphasized writing counterpoint above a bass line.[2][3][4]
Awards edit
- Hilding Rosenberg Award of Musicology (2016) - Counterpoint and Partimento: Methods of Teaching Composition in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples[5]
Books edit
- van Tour, Peter (2017). The 189 Partimenti of Nicola Sala: Complete Edition with Critical Commentary. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-554-9778-1.
- van Tour, Peter (2015). Counterpoint and Partimento: Methods of Teaching Composition in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-554-9197-0.
Notes edit
- ^ a b Norwegian Academy of Music Faculty Page
- ^ Slominski 2016, p. 295, "Counterpoint and Partimento is a laudable contribution to modern-day knowledge of eighteenth-century Neapolitan musical practice. As contemporary views of historical musical training continue to build, Peter van Tour's study will remain a vital pillar."
- ^ Gjerdingen 2016, p. 124, "Van Tour’s achievement is remarkable both for the breadth of sources brought to bear on the problem and for the powers of synthesis needed to see how they all fit together."
- ^ Forkert 2016, p. 157, "The greatest success, however, must be the fact that he has provided his field of study with another dimension that future scholarship in this area will not be able to ignore."
- ^ Royal Swedish Academy of Music 2016
References edit
- Slominski, Johnandrew (2016). "Counterpoint and Partimento: Methods of Teaching Composition in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples by Peter van Tour". Notes. 73 (2): 292–295. doi:10.1353/not.2016.0129. S2CID 193721218.
- Gjerdingen, Robert O. (2016). "Peter van Tour Counterpoint and Partimento: Methods of Teaching Composition in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet, 2015 pp. 318, isbn 978 91 554 9197 0". Eighteenth Century Music. 13: 123–129. doi:10.1017/S1478570615000524. S2CID 164581936.
- Forkert, Annika (2016). "Godfathers of counterpoint". Early Music. 44: 155–157. doi:10.1093/em/caw002.
External links edit
- Peter van Tour Personal Page.
- Peter van Tour Faculty Page at the Norwegian Academy of Music