The main objective of this book is to teach music theory through practical activity. Its aims at developing comprehensive musicianship by means of thorough understanding of the materials provided, providing guidance in stylistic analysis and authentic performance, and giving an opportunity for students to integrate what they learn into practice, improvisation, and composition. The material of this book can be used by students in any area of specialization (by singers, instrumentalists, educators, theorists, etc.).

This book takes the student on an exciting musical journey following the path of music history from the birth of harmony through the late Baroque. The musical examples and excerpts included within are taken from the masterworks of the classical repertoire. These examples support practical work with exercises, dictation, worksheets for composition, analysis, bass figuration and realisation. In addition, all solutions are provided.

The book consists of three parts:

Part I is an anthology containing carefully selected pieces from the broad repertoire of music spanning ten centuries (from the 8th to the 18th century). It provides a musical source of study, performance, and analysis, in addition to essential information about musical styles of different eras.

Part II provides sung, played, and written exercises and dictations which are closely related to the pieces included in Part I.

Part III offers the solutions by way of the original pieces and contains advice for the realization of the exercises contained in Part II.

A continuation to this textbook is A Practical Approach to Viennese Classical Music, published in 2022.