The Enduring Legacy of Gradus ad Parnassum: Posthumous Reception and Adaptation of Fuxian Contrapuntal Method

• Grant number: 25/07418-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: March 01, 2026
• End date: February 28, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Music
• Principal Investigator: Monica Isabel Lucas
• Grantee: Caio Amadatsu Griman
• Supervisor: Michele Calella
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Vienna, Austria
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/16145-0 - Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) and Joseph Johann Fux (1660-1741) and the defense of the stile antico in the German Counter-Reformation world, BP.DR

Abstract

Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum (1725) stands as one of the most influential 18th-century musical treatises, its pedagogical legacy enduring far beyond its original cultural environment in the capital of the Habsburg Monarchy. From composers of the First Viennese School to prominent figures such as Heinrich Bellermann, Arnold Schönberg, and Heinrich Schenker, successive generations of musicians and writers have adapted Fux's treatise to their own compositional practices and theoretical interpretations. This transgenerational resonance, however, has necessitated adaptations that often obscure its original epistemological and cultural framework. This research project interrogates the historical trajectory of the Fuxian contrapuntal tradition, probing how its perpetuation relied on a dialectical process involving both a creative adoption and a systematic detachment from the treatise's specific aims - notably Fux's endeavor to reconcile the stile antico with the stile moderno. Through a critical analysis of primary sources from the late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, the project traces how successive musicians and theorists reframed Fux's method to suit evolving aesthetic, social and musicological paradigms. In doing so, it evaluates the consequences of these reinterpretations on the reception of Gradus and their role in shaping persistent misconceptions within contemporary debates on Fux's legacy. (AU)