janzen@pipa.DEC (Thomas E. J. LMO4/B5 279-5421 ECL Test) (08/12/85)
We on the Digital engineering network were having a lively discussion about music theory. I contributed the following bibliography on traditional theory. Others also suggested the book Elementary Training for Musicians by Hindemith, and Persichetti's 20th Century Harmony. Also, the jazz theory books by Mehegan came up. *Notation (To learn to write music, first you must learn to write music.) Preparing Music Manuscript - Donato (good stuff on making parts for large ensembles) The Art of Music Engraving and Processing - Ross (Hansen) (Extremely detailed exposition of American music engraving standards on basic notation. Essential for people writing transcription programs for computer.) Music Notation - Read (Crescendo) (not actually that good, but in a desert...) New Music Vocabulary - Risatti (U of Illinois) (source book of symbols for new instrumentation effects.) Practical Guide to Music Notation - Carl A. Rosenthal (pretty good.) *Harmony (a major fifteenth chord with flat fifth and a double sharp 11th?) Harmony - Schenker (MIT) (Nothing special. Doesn't include his theories.) Harmony - Piston (Norton) (Very popular and complete book.) Traditional Harmony - Hindemith (An outline. I used it in high school. Better with a teacher around than without, but can be navigated alone. No examples from the literature; a teacher is supposed to give you that.) Theory of Harmony - Schoenberg (Uni California) (A wise book. Somewhat old. About traditional harmony, not his serial system.) Structural Functions of Harmony - Schoenberg (Norton)(Excellent description of the relations of key areas; addresses the same issues as Schenker.) Structural Hearing - Salzer (Dover) (based on Schenker's work, was intended to be a complete 3 year course in everything. The modal counterpoint section is not good. The rest provides good illustration of Schenker's thought. A big two volume work in one book from Dover.) Five Graphic Music Analyses Schenker (Dover) (No commentary, just graphs of pieces. Read the Salzer first.) *Counterpoint Tonal Counterpoint - Krenek (Boosey & Hawkes) A short outline. Counterpoint - Piston (Norton) A more complete textbook. Modal Counterpoint - Krenek (Boosey & hawkes) A very short outline. Better with a teacher. Studies in Counterpoint - Krenek (Shirmer) (An outline of serial twelve-tone technicque. Pretty good.) *Form Exercises in Melody Writing - Goetschius (Shirmer)(Beginning principles of form.) Homophonic Forms - Goetschius Very old. Musical Form - Leichentritt Very old. Musical Structure? - Wallace Beery, (a standard college text based on Schenker, Salzer and Cooper/Meyer. *Rhythm (I got rhythm - have you?) The Rhythmic Structure of Music - Cooper & Meyer (U of Chicago) (The standard psycho-acoustically founded treatise on grouping, emphasis, accent.) Principles of Rhythm - Creston (Belwin Mills)(A compendium of the confused historical Western ideas about rhythm,presented as coordinated theory.) *Instrumention and Orchestration (for writing permanently obscure music) Dictionary of Bowing & Tonal Technics for Strings - Mark Lorrin (Hansen) Fantastic summary of string instrumentation details. Orchestral Technique - Gordon jacob Really talks about orchestration and texture and blending The technique of Choral Composition - A. T. Davison (Cambridge) (Hard to remember, but I think it was OK) A Guide to writing vocal arrangements for Solists, Groups, Chorus - Jimmy Joyce (First Place Music Pub.) Studio orientation. Good concrete guidance. Scoring for the Band - Lang (mills Music) (good job of what no one needs.) It's for making wind orchestra and marching band charts. Orchestration (a practical handbook) - Wagner (McGraw Hill) not much special, some things on choral and strings were unique. Teach yourself Orchestration - King Palmer (English University Press) Project Lessons in Orchestration - Heacox (Oliver Ditson, Theodor Presser remarks on writing for school orchestra; real orchestration exercises. The Technique of Orchestration - Kent Wheeler Kennan (University of Texas) models of texture; hints on transcribing piano music. Practical Orchestration - Arthur Olaf Anderson ( Incredible instrumentation detail on strings (every single fingering in every position) Pointers on using each instrument in a texture. Not much orchestration. Orchestration - Cecil Forsyth (since reprinted by Dover). Really only instrumentation, but includes some weird old instruments such as Tenoroon, Quartfaggot, and dulcitone. Does anyone have a DX7 patch for a quartfaggot? Orchestration - Piston (Norton) (Popular, really mostly instrumentation. Very little on orchestration. Woodwinds get covered pretty well. Brass is short-shrifted, so is percussion. Strings are just routinely covered. eh. No weird old instruments. Treatis on Instrumentation - Berlioz (R. Strauss additions marked with change bars)(Kalmus(now Belwin-Mills)) Very old but well illustrated. More actual orchestration, mixed in with the instrumentation. Includes older rare instruments. Half the book is full examples, mostly from Berlioz, Wagner, and the others. Instrumentation or Orchestration by Rimsky-Korsakov. Dover. Remembered this at the last minute. The front half is mostly instrumention covered lightly, with hints on using instruments in a texture. the second half is all examples from Rimsky-Korsakov. Well_Prepared Piano - Richard Bunger (POOP) the only guide to using special mutes in a piano to change the sound. *Composition Craft of Musical Composition 2 vols.- Hindemith (Schott) (Vol II is Abstract rules for beginners to practice discipline. Has nothing to do with reality.) However, I never saw volume I, which is supposedly the theoretical part.) Fundamentals of Musical Composition - Schoenberg (Faber) Invention & Composition of Music - Hutchings (Aphorisms, simple guidance and encouragement.) *Advanced studies Notes of an Apprenticeship - Boulez (examples of modern theory-great article on the rhythm of The Rite of Spring) Technique of My Musical Composition - Messiean (How he actually composed, including scales, rhythm, and color correspondance with chords) Twentieth Century Music Idioms - Welton Marquis (Prentice-hall) (atonal primer, a slightly artificial introduction) Serial Music? - George Perle (advanced serial text.) Formalized Music - Iannis Xenakis (Compilation of articles including his description of his FORTRAN composing program and his techniques.) Tom Janzen DEC Marlboro MA Posted: Mon 12-Aug-1985 14:29 EST To: @CLASSICAL
linda@amdcad.UUCP (Linda Seltzer) (08/14/85)
Thank you for posting the list of books on music theory - may I add another on music notation? And that is Kurt Stone's Music Notation in the Twentieth Century. We read it in a notation class at UCSD, and it has many suggestions for composers wishing to notate non-traditional sound events. Linda Seltzer
rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (08/14/85)
> *Advanced studies > Serial Music? - George Perle (advanced serial text.) That's "Serial Composition and Atonality", which is supposed to be the textbook's textbook onm the subject. Perle re-constructed the last act of Berg's "Lulu", and is an eminent scholar of dodecaphony. Does anyone know where I can find (or if there is) a copy of his work "Sonnets to Orpheus"? -- Life is complex. It has real and imaginary parts. Rich Rosen ihnp4!pyuxd!rlr
hedger@ada-uts.UUCP (08/15/85)
I don't know if you on the digital engineering network are musicians but you stated an opinion that I must take exception with....Gardner Read's book on notation is one of the best references available on the subject. I don't know what your criteria for the judging the texts were, but I personally know many composers and aspiring composers who use this book constantly to find the best notation to communicate their music to performers....just wanted to present another opinion...keith hedger
linda@amdcad.UUCP (Linda Seltzer) (08/20/85)
I agree that Gardner Read's book on notation is excellent.