October 23, 200817 yr I don't know if there is a thread on this already, but I figured since I'm reading a pretty informative book I'd let you all know. "The Rest is Noise" is a good one I'm reading right now. It is pretty much an overview on the lives and music of 20th century composers which I find to be helpful since there doesn't seem to be a lot out there readily available at bookstores (Here at least) Another one which I haven't read much of yet but have nonetheless is "This is your Brain on Music". The portions I have read are quite interesting, dealing more with the science behind what parts of the brain respond to music and all that jazz. I'm interested in what people have read that is good since I don't have many books on music as of yet besides theory based ones. Vince
October 23, 200817 yr Kenny Werner's Effortless Mastery. Invaluable to any/every artist. Amazon.com: Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within: Kenny Werner: Books
October 23, 200817 yr -The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Composition -The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory Those are what I use. Great for beginners I guess.
October 24, 200817 yr -The Complete Musician's Guide to IdiotsVery useful. That book has a whole chapter about me. :ermm: I would recommend Erno Lendvai's book B
October 24, 200817 yr Another one which I haven't read much of yet but have nonetheless is "This is your Brain on Music". The portions I have read are quite interesting, dealing more with the science behind what parts of the brain respond to music and all that jazz. Great book, that, but it's probably a little outdated now.
October 24, 200817 yr Jacques Attali's Noise: The Political Economy of Music is an interesting philosophical text. Oswald Spengler's Decline of the West has an interesting few chapters on music. It's available online somewhere. There's also a huge textbook on Music Aesthetics that was muy interesting. It was on netlibrary, which is totally worth signing up for.
October 24, 200817 yr I can second the "The Rest is Noise" recommendation. It's actually really gripping for a music history book, even if you're not really into 20th century music. The author, Alex Ross has a good blog too: Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise Another good one is "Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain" by neurologist Oliver Sacks. Then there's my most recent read, "Audio Culture", a collection of over 50 essays/articles/interviews/musings on the histories and philosophies of different interwaeaving strands of contemporrary music written by everyone from Edgard Varese, John Cage (of course), Steve Reich and Ornette Coleman to Brian Eno, Aphex Twin and even William S. Burroughs(!). It has an extract from that Jacques Attali book too. Not the most accessible book around, but fascinating.
October 24, 200817 yr "Mozart in the Jungle" - Excellent book about actually being a working musician.
October 25, 200817 yr I've read that one too. Good book. It's subtitle is "Sex, drugs and classical music".:D
March 22, 200917 yr Old thread... but I was about to ask this question and recommend a couple books (already appearing in this thread) So... are there any more good books you've read lately (that pertain to music?) I'll go ahead and second 'Musicophilia' as was mentioned on the previous page.
March 22, 200917 yr Working my way through The Singing Neanderthals by Stephen Mithen right now. If you're interested in the confluence of musical ability and evolutionary biology, READ IT! Take its information with a grain of salt, but Mithen is a very entertaining and not extremely technical writer. Quite enjoyable for musicians and nonmusicians, biologists and nonbiologists.
March 22, 200917 yr For those looking for advice on orchestration, Principles of Orchestration by Rimsky-Korsakov. It is a quick read that is very helpful. (I find myself referring back to it every-so-often.)
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