I wasn't going to add to this, but ... couldn't resist: There are rules that are valid for a long period of music, and others that are very specific to one style. Steve Schwartz said, that to write complex counterpoint that allows parallel fifths is just as easy as to write complex counterpoint that does not allow them; sorry, Steve, that just is not true when using traditional tonality -- many voice leadings from one chord to another would be made easier if parallel fifths were allowed. Sometimes, as I write, I admit I change voicing to avoid direct fifths approached by skips even though I can't hear anything wrong in the context of my music. Other times, particularly in motion of a tonal complex up a major second, the direct or parallel fifths seem essential to the sound. That is a sound influenced by popular music, I think, but still part of my personal instinctive collection of usable progressions. But, Jan Templiner, as an example of foolish application of rules where they should not be applied, one experienced conductor said to me, in criticism of music written in the last decade, "you used unprepared dissonance". It caused my jaw to drop --- if you can't use unprepared dissonance, that means you MUST use "consonances", ie, triads, before every dissonance. If that were really a valid rule over a long period of time, there would be a lot of very good music that did not follow the rule. William Copper composer www.hartenshield.com