Books on composition and counterpoint

[ND31]

what are some of the best out there ?

[BWV 1080]

For traditional tonal forms, Schoenberg's book on composition is hard to beat, no other composer of his stature wrote so much basic instruction. His counterpoint book is OK if you want the species approach, but I would recommend Robert Gauldin's A Practical Approach to Eighteenth-Century Counterpoint which goes directly into how to write fugues and canons

[Phil Kelly]

Here are a couple others:

Techniques of 20th Century Composition: Leon Dallin

Exercises in 20th Century Composition: G. Welton Marquis

The Definitive Twelve tone Method: Georges Tremblay

Shaping forces in Music: Ernst Toch

Craft of Musical Composition and Exercises in two part writing: Paul Hindemith


** note: some of these titles may be somewhat incorrect, but all the authors names are correct.

[walto]

Seems like I had something by a guy named Fux.

Or maybe that's just how I felt doing the exercises...

[EdByrne]

Ed's Brief Bibliography of 20th Century Theory & Composition

Cogan, Robert, and Pozzi Escot. Sonic Design. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice, 1976.

Forte, Allen. “Pitch-Class Set Genera and the Origin of Modern Harmonic Species.” Journal of Music Theory 32 (1988): 187-270.

Lester, Joel. Analytic Approaches to Twentieth-Century Music. New York: Norton, 1987.

Lewin, David. “Some Instances of Parallel Voice-Leading in Debussy.” 19th Century Music 11. 1 (1987): 59-72.

Messiaen, Oliver. Technique de mon Language Musical. 1 Trans. John Satterfield. Paris: Leduc, 1956.

“Mode.” New Harvard Dictionary of Music. 1986.

Parks, Richard S. “Pitch Organization in Debussy: Unordered Sets in ‘Brouillards.’ Journal of the Society for Music Theory 2 (1980): 119-134.

- - -. The Music of Claude Debussy. New Haven: Yale UP, 1989.

Powers, Harold S. “Mode.” New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 1980.

Dallin, Leon. Techniques of Twentieth Century Composition. Dubuque, Iowa: Brown, 1974.

Daly, William H. Debussy: A Study in Modern Music. Edinburgh: Simpson, 1908.

Davies, Laurence. Ravel Orchestral Music. London: BBC, 1982.

Deri, Otto. Exploring Twentieth Century Music. New York: Holt, 1968.

Harder, Paul O. Bridge to Twentieth Century Music. Boston: Allyn, 1973.

Reti, Rudolph. Tonality, Atonality, Pantonality: A Study of Some Trends in Twentieth Century Music. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1978.

Samson, Jim. Music in Transition: A Study of Tonal Expansion and Atonality, 1900-1920. London: Dent, 1977.

Watkins, Glenn. Soundings: Music in the Twentieth Century. New York: Schirmer, 1988.

Wenk, Arthur B. Claude Debussy and Twentieth Century Music. Boston: Twayne, 1983.

Wittlich, Gary E., ed. Aspects of Twentieth Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice, 1975.

"Twentieth Century Compositional Techniques" G. Welton Marquis (pub?)

"Music of the Whole Earth" David Reck. (a great survey and explanation of many of the non European music systems in the world ..Indian, Semitic, Balinese, African, Oriental, et al.

Basic Stuff

Harmony, Counterpoint, & Orchestration by Walter Piston

[Phil Kelly]

Ed's Brief Bibliography of 20th Century Theory & Composition

snip ..


"Twentieth Century Compositional Techniques" G. Welton Marquis (pub?)

"Music of the Whole Earth" David Reck. (a great survey and explanation of many of the non European music systems in the world ..Indian, Semitic, Balinese, African, Oriental, et al.





Ed :

thanks for correcting the Marquis title ..

Also: The David Reck book is a real winner ..when I was doing film music and needed a quick course in some type of non western idioms, that book was my bible!!

[EdByrne]

Ed :

thanks for correcting the Marquis title ..

Also: The David Reck book is a real winner ..when I was doing film music and needed a quick course in some type of non western idioms, that book was my bible!!

Yeah Phil, and after I posted above, I realized that the Reck was your suggestion in a previous go-around of this topic (complete with your note attached, I think). I added it to my list--and I've yet to read that one. I'm going to, though. The others I have been through more than once, and Cogan/Escot, Levin, Parks, Forte, et al are outstanding--truly new theoretical thinking.:cheers

[walto]

Here's the Fux.

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/7180808RDDL._AA240_.gif

I also used a couple books by Gardner Read and the Piston.

[Phil Kelly]

Walto:

Just seeing the cover again made me bust out in hives!

:gavel: :gavel: :gavel: :gavel: :gavel: :gavel:

[EdByrne]

Here's the Fux.

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/7180808RDDL._AA240_.gif

I also used a couple books by Gardner Read and the Piston.

I like Read's Music Notation book also!

[guitarjazz]

Perhaps the Vincent Persichetti, Twentieth-Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practice. I once heard him improvise a fugue based on a student’s theme. Not something you witness down at the corner bar though I did stand next to Ratzo when he played a bass solo with his chin while telling a joke about the North Pole.

[guitarjazz]

Rufus Reid (recipient of the BMI composers award), attended the last Lydian Chromatic Concept seminar, held by Andy Wasserman and George Russell, a few years ago, to get some new compositional ideas. The Russell book could be added to the stew too.

[ND31]

thanks for the replies

most of the books mentioned are available at school so I'll get them ... I've started reading Schoenberg's book and it's excellent thus far

[EdByrne]

Perhaps the Vincent Persichetti, Twentieth-Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practice. I once heard him improvise a fugue based on a student’s theme. Not something you witness down at the corner bar though I did stand next to Ratzo when he played a bass solo with his chin while telling a joke about the North Pole.

This book is superb. However, I must caution you that it is now dangerously outdated. A great deal of research has taken place since, rendering much of it obsolete.

[guitarjazz]

From your previous list...could you narrow it down to one or two books concerning twentieth century music? I've tried the local Borders and all they have is DJing for Dummies.This won't do.

[EdByrne]

From your previous list...could you narrow it down to one or two books concerning twentieth century music? I've tried the local Borders and all they have is DJing for Dummies.This won't do.

Try these:

Cogan, Robert, and Pozzi Escot. Sonic Design. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice, 1976.

Lester, Joel. Analytic Approaches to Twentieth-Century Music. New York: Norton, 1987.

These may not be the latest editions.
Also, Parks and Lewin have great books not mentioned above.

The main theorists with whom I'm familiar are: Cogan, Lewin, Parks, Lester and Forte. There are, of course, others of great interest as well.

[Phil Kelly]

From your previous list...could you narrow it down to one or two books concerning twentieth century music? I've tried the local Borders and all they have is DJing for Dummies.This won't do.

Borders ( and other mainstream brick and mortar stors ) are not the best places to find music theory texts. Better to go online and Google some university bookstore sources.

That being said, I'd recommend:

Twentieth Cent. Music Composition : G welton Marquis

Twentieth Cent. Music: Leon Dallin

[BWV 1080]

The Dallin book is good (is it back in print?) but only really covers the early 20th century - detailing some of Debussy's and Stravinsky's techniques and basic 12-tone theory. It will not give one much on Postwar music trends - the best books I know are on specific composers. David Schiff's book on Elliott Carter or Antokoletz's book on Bartok for example. Forte's Structure of Atonal Music (or alternatively Carter's Harmony Book) are good references for tonal material outside of scales.Reginald Smith Brindle's Serial Composition is an excellent composition text, although it teaches primarily orthodox 12-tone technique it talks in depth about how to build and reduce tension in the absence of traditional tonality. Also Wallace Berry's Structural Functions of Music is good in the same regard - with in depth analysis of rhythm and texture as opposed to concentrating on pitch.

[Phil Kelly]

The Dallin book is good (is it back in print?) but only really covers the early 20th century - detailing some of Debussy's and Stravinsky's techniques and basic 12-tone theory. It will not give one much on Postwar music trends - the best books I know are on specific composers. David Schiff's book on Elliott Carter or Antokoletz's book on Bartok for example. Forte's Structure of Atonal Music (or alternatively Carter's Harmony Book) are good references for tonal material outside of scales.Reginald Smith Brindle's Serial Composition is an excellent composition text, although it teaches primarily orthodox 12-tone technique it talks in depth about how to build and reduce tension in the absence of traditional tonality. Also Wallace Berry's Structural Functions of Music is good in the same regard - with in depth analysis of rhythm and texture as opposed to concentrating on pitch.

Also, for dodecaphonic stuff, the Georges Tremblay book is good if you can find one ..its OOP