There were two golden eras of counterpoint. The first was during the 16th century, which saw the flourishing of the great church polyphony of composers such as Palestrina (the word polyphonic can also be used to mean contrapuntal). This counterpoint was fairly imitative and modal.
b & b bb
? bb b w b
˙
˙
w
Ó ˙
˙˙
jœ œ ˙ œ . œ œ œ
Palestrina - Sicut Cervus
˙œ ˙œ . œ ˙œ œ œ˙ œ œ Jj œ œ œ . œ œ œ ˙˙ Ó
The second is the Baroque, especially the late Baroque, which was the heyday of instrumental counterpoint. The greatest contrapuntal composer of this era was Johann Sebastian Bach. In Palestrina’s time the music the major/minor tonal system was not yet fully evolved, but by the time Bach came along, it had been for some time. Bach expressed his contrapuntal genius most fully in his fugues and inventions, although you can find contrapuntal writing in almost all his music, even in his chorales.
œ œœœœœœ œ j œ œ œ œj & b 43 ‰ œ œ œ œ œ j œ j œ œ œ ? b 43 œ œ ‰
Bach - Invention 8 BWV 779
It's Baroque counterpoint that we are going to study in this book. If you want models to study, then Bach's fugues and inventions are your best bet. The fugues are really the greatest contrapuntal compositions ever written. The two-part inventions are also good to study because they are in two parts, whereas the fugues are usually in three or four.
2