A must read books for modern composers.

So I wanted to share some of the books I read that helped me a lot and you guys feel free to add stuff.

The first one is Andreja Pejrolo's: Acoustic and MIDI Orchestration for the Contemporary Composer: A Practical Guide to Writing and Sequencing for the Studio Orchestra.

This book is an absolute must read for anyone working with DAWs. You just have to read it. It contains lots and lots of useful techniques, advices, general info on MIDI, mixing, sequencing, I mean it really has all you need, it's good for a total newbie and for more experienced composers. Amazon sells it pretty cheap, so guys, do yourself a favor and buy the book. You won't regret it.

Another interesting book is: Composing Music: A New Approach

This one is more classically oriented, but still, has lots of good exercises, definitely worth a read.

Now, everybody need to know their jazz, and this book is excelent: Bill Dobbins - Jazz Arranging and Composing: A Linear Approach.

There's a few from me, I will update when I remember more or I find more interesting reads.

...

Now, everybody need to know their jazz, and this book is excelent: Bill Dobbins - Jazz Arranging and Composing: A Linear Approach.

I didn't think that book was so well put together...

:dunno:

Didn't appeal to me in the slightest.

I didn't think that book was so well put together...

:dunno:

Didn't appeal to me in the slightest.

Well you may be right,but I think it's worth a read, at least for people who don't know much about jazz...

Well you may be right,but I think it's worth a read, at least for people who don't know much about jazz...

I think it would be impossibly dense and irrelvant to anyone who doesn't know much about jazz. There are much better introductions to jazz than the Dobbins book, which is aimed more at more advanced and academic writers - it doesn't really explain anything.

I think it would be impossibly dense and irrelvant to anyone who doesn't know much about jazz. There are much better introductions to jazz than the Dobbins book, which is aimed more at more advanced and academic writers - it doesn't really explain anything.

Ahh well... I'm not gonna argue with you, I know you're into Jazz alot.. I liked it. Anyway, try to be useful and recommend a good book about jazz :)

Here is a book that I found very interesting, although I can't say I actually got too far into it before needing to return it to the library: The Thematic Process in Music by Rudolph R. Reti. It's somewhat on the older side by now, but anyway, he analyzes a great deal of well-known music and clearly points out melodic/motivic unity--sometimes in unexpected ways, such as where he attempts to show that all of Schumann's Kinderszenen themes are built from two initial motives in the first piece.

Sometimes I think it's a little contrived and not always convincing; but some of the similarities are very impressive, and at the least it might give you interesting ways to think about unifying your own compositions.

Anyway, try to be useful and recommend a good book about jazz :)

Useful:

Mark Levine - The Jazz Theory Book

Chase Sanborn - Jazz Tactics

Rayburn Wright - Inside the Score

Sammy Nestico - The Complete Arranger

---

Maria Schneider - Evanessence, Complete Study Scores

Kenny Wheeler - Collected Works

This is a good one.

http://www.amazon.com/Twentieth-Century-Harmony-Creative-Aspects-Practice/dp/0393095398

Not super in-depth, but provides a wide coverage of the harmonic materials of the 20th century. (It says the first half, but besides microtonal or spectral stuff, it covers almost everything else still in use today.)

It's a good reference guide, at least, and can be a good jumping off point for exploring new harmonic territory.