eboats

How often do you spend looking at or analyzing scores of pieces you like or want to learn from? I picked up a score of a piece by charles wuorinen recently and find it useful to see how it was put together. I'm wondering how other composers use scores and how it helps the learning process.

Thanks, I've heard of Spectralism - any books you recommend on it? I haven't seen any on the subject or the composers.

Thanks for the great reply. I guess whether you like it or don't, one thing about 12 tone music is that it sounds utterly unique and original, even today, 60+ years after a lot of it was written. It's interesting that innovation in art and technology moves faster and is more widely accepted than innovation in music. Or maybe as you say, we're just in a a slow/innovation period. Any recommendations for books on 12 tone or serialist music? I've seen one which is pretty dense (Post-tonal Theory by Strauss) so wonder if there are clearer texts.

I've been learning about 12 tone/serialist approaches to structuring and composing music. Of course, those approaches aren't new anymore. Have there been other important (more recent) non-tonal music theory frameworks for organizing music since then?