xiii1408 Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 I'm looking for a new music composition book to further my studies (I'd prefer to take a class, but I can't currently). I've read The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory, Music Theory for Dummies, and Introduction to Music Composition by King Palmer. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morivou Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 Actually... have you considered reading "Theory of Harmony" by Arnold Shoenberg.... It's a brilliant work that delves into the possibility of WHY things sound the way they. It's insightful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dead Chicken Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 Shoenberg's Fundamentals of Composition is a good one on forms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morivou Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 Shoenberg's Fundamentals of Composition is a good one on forms. YES! I agree here as well!. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiii1408 Posted August 8, 2009 Author Share Posted August 8, 2009 Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into those books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dead Chicken Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 Fundamentals is on Scribd...:whistling: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmiew Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 Both Schoenburg books are absolutely amazing, harmony would be a great area to study next. That being said, I think there are few books you could go wrong with and my method of finding sources like that is to go to used book stores because not only are you likely to find good books but they're cheaper and you can get more. I spent $30 for the Theory of Harmony, then i spent $1.35 for stravinsky's Poetics in Music (I believe thats the title) so really you can get a lot more and sometimes find more interesting things depending on where you live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasJ Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 "20th Century Harmony" by Vincent Persichetti is a great book, and a very practical one, really written from the viewpoint of a composer (as opposed to that of a music theorist). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impresario Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 Rolifer reccomended Norton's Scores (Volume 2, than 1) which is a compalation of scores with a CD to listen to the music, score to read along (some aren't full) and authors comments on how this was used and how that affected the mood, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamen Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 Schoenberg's books are really great. Read Persichetti's book after them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwfan86 Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 One of the first books my first composition teacher (when I was 13) made me go out and purchase was "The Study of Orchestration" by Samuel Adler. It's a fantastic book which discusses in detail all the ranges and uses of the instruments, and how you can use their various techniques to produce different colors. I highly recommend it for anyone who plans to do anything with composition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiii1408 Posted August 8, 2009 Author Share Posted August 8, 2009 I've downloaded Schoenberg's Fundamentals of Musical Composition, Structural Functions of Harmony, and Preliminary Exercises in Counterpoint from Scribd and have started reading Fundamentals of Musical Composition. I like it, thanks for the suggestions. I'll go search my local bookstore for actual books tomorrow and see if I come up with anything I like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamen Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 I personally think it's best to learn harmony and counterpoint first and to concentrate on forms after that - learn the smaller building blocks and then progress to the bigger ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impresario Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 I have a question, what do you mean 'downloaded' the book? Can you send/give me a link on where you get them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiii1408 Posted August 10, 2009 Author Share Posted August 10, 2009 Scribd has various books in the public domain. Just search for the name of the Schoenberg book you want and download it. By the way, I decided to read Walter Piston's Harmony first and read Schoenberg's books later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impresario Posted August 11, 2009 Share Posted August 11, 2009 Wow, great ressource, thanks :] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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