Why Do We Teach Harmony So Badly?

Extract

Ladies and Gentlemen,—Before beginning my paper I wish to preface it with a few remarks as to its title. Some of our professors of harmony may doubtless—through misunderstanding that title—have thought that I was casting a slight on their ability to teach. If any did think so, let me hasten to say that any such idea was absolutely groundless, and entirely foreign from my meaning. As you all know, on the title everything depends. We musicians are but mortals, and unless our attention is arrested by something startling, we are apt to pass a matter over as commonplace.