IMSLP Forums

Hello.
I was wondering if anyone could help me in my query.
I'm searching for musicological books (or theses/dissertations) which discuss melodic intervals.
I mean eg. about the perfect fifth: what are its qualities in melody? What does it show? How is it used? Examples of famous melodies that use the fifth and what they invoke, etc.

I already have "the language of Music" by Cooke but i'm looking for something else than that.

I'm interested mostly in a discussion of the perfect 5th (as a melodic interval), which Cooke's book doesn't have much about..
(but in the others too)

Well, it's not finished yet. But when it is, the "Material of Music" by Nicholas D. Lewis (see academia.edu) will have full descriptions of the melodic intervals.

Try any early music theory textbook - Rameau's 1722 treatise talks about it. Book 3 or 4 I think. Some early counterpoint books talk about it too. Just search.

"On the Sensations of Tone" by Hermann Helmholtz (Dover reprint) is a pretty interesting read, even if it dates from the 1870's.

Thank you very much. I'll check them.
Although I'd prefer more recent views on the subject..