Composition
For composition in popular music genres, see the pages Composition and Songwriting at the Popular Music Guide and Production and Composition at the Musical Theatre Guide. First time writing for a particular instrument? Also consider consulting the Musical Instruments Guide to learn more about that instrument and its repertoire.
Recommended Books
In the print Music Collection, historical studies on composition can be found in ML 430 while instructional texts can be found in MT 40. For additional resources, be sure to search for biographies of composers (ML 390 and ML 410), interviews with composers, books on musical creativity, and manuals about writing for particular instruments or voices. The recommended books below are sorted by their call numbers. Hover over the info icon to see a description of the book.
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The Creative Process in Music from Mozart to Kurtág
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In this intriguing study, William Kinderman opens the door to the composer's workshop, investigating not just the final outcome but the process of creative endeavor in music. Focusing on the stages of composition, Kinderman maintains that the most rigorous basis for the study of artistic creativity comes not from anecdotal or autobiographical reports, but from original handwritten sketches, drafts, revised manuscripts, and corrected proof sheets. He explores works of major composers from the eighteenth century to the present, from Mozart's piano music and Beethoven's Piano Trio in F to Kurtág's Kafka Fragments and Hommage à R. Sch. Other chapters examine Robert Schumann's Fantasie in C, Mahler's Fifth Symphony, and Bartók's Dance Suite. Kinderman's analysis takes the form of "genetic criticism," tracing the genesis of these cultural works, exploring their aesthetic meaning, and mapping the continuity of a central European tradition that has displayed remarkable vitality for over two centuries, as accumulated legacies assumed importance for later generations.
Call Number: ML193 .K56 2012Publication Date: 2012 -
Music after the Fall: Modern Composition and Culture Since 1989
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Music after the Fall is the first book to survey contemporary Western art music within the transformed political, cultural, and technological environment of the post-Cold War era. In this book, Tim Rutherford-Johnson considers musical composition against this changed backdrop, placing it in the context of globalization, digitization, and new media. Drawing connections with the other arts, in particular visual art and architecture, he expands the definition of Western art music to include forms of composition, experimental music, sound art, and crossover work from across the spectrum, inside and beyond the concert hall.
Call Number: ML197 .R94 2017Publication Date: 2017 -
The Voice of Music: Conversations with Composers of Our Time
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Extensive and generously illustrated interviews have been a feature of the lively Danish music periodical Dansk Musik Tidsskrift (Danish Music Review) since the 1960s. Now a long-standing tradition, these conversations with influential composers from all over the world are prepared by professional musicians and experienced writers on music. This volume is a collection of interviews selected from issues published since 1990 by Anders Beyer, the journal's editor-in-chief. Composers interviewed include Ligeti, Gubaidulina, Nørgård, Stockhausen, Denisov, Schnittke, Glass, Lindberg, Xenakis, and Saariaho.
Call Number: ML310.5 .B49 2000Publication Date: 2000 -
Berio's Sequenzas: Essays on Performance, Composition and Analysis
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Between 1958 and 2002, Luciano Berio wrote fourteen pieces entitled Sequenza, along with several versions of the same work for different instruments, revisions of the original pieces and also the parallel Chemins series, where one of the Sequenzas is used as the basis for a new composition on a larger scale. The Sequenza series is one of the most remarkable achievements of the late twentieth century - a collection of virtuoso pieces that explores the capabilities of a solo instrument and its player, making extreme technical demands of the performer whilst developing the musical vocabulary of the instrument in compositions so assured and so distinctive that each piece both initiates and potentially exhausts the repertoire of a new genre. The Sequenzas have significantly influenced the development of composition for solo instruments and voice, and there is no comparable series of works in the output of any other composer. The varied approaches taken by the contributors in discussing the pieces demonstrate the richness of this repertoire and the many levels on which Berio and these landmark compositions can be considered.
Call Number: ML410.B4968 B47 2007Publication Date: 2007 -
Ligeti's Stylistic Crisis: Transformation in His Musical Style, 1974-1985
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Ligeti's Stylistic Crisis: Transformation in His Musical Style, 1974-1985 explores how Ligeti's compositional style completely transformed during and after the composition of his only opera Le Grand Macabre (1974-1977). Michael D. Searby examines Ligeti's music from 1974 to 1985 in detail, with a particular emphasis on Le Grand Macabre, analyzing the music and providing possible explanations for the stylistic and compositional changes, as well as considering the consequences for Ligeti's subsequent music. Searby also examines Ligeti's relationship with postmodernism, addressing the modernist versus postmodernist polemic as it pertains to Ligeti's works. Many musical examples support the discussion, and an appendix summarizing the opera and photographs from a recent production, as well as an extensive bibliography, add to this valuable reference.
Call Number: ML410.L645 S42 2010Publication Date: 2010 -
Kaija Saariaho: Visions, Narratives, Dialogues
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Kaija Saariaho is internationally recognized as a leading figure in contemporary music, enjoying a well-deserved reputation for works that are both creatively original and of considerable appeal. Her music communicates with a refreshingly broad audience, and this special achievement deserves careful consideration. In the first symposium book in English to be dedicated exclusively to this single figure, scholars from both the UK and Saariaho's native Finland bring a range of perspectives to her richly varied output. Uncovering the compositional, historical, cultural, and sociological issues that have resulted in such critical acclaim lies at the heart of this collection of essays. Saariaho's approach to composition is an interdisciplinary one; it embraces a number of art forms - visual, literary, and musical - in works that explore a creative dialogue between image, continuity, and time. While such diversity is readily accommodated in a multi-authored collection, the consistency of an underlying compositional identity and integrity is also an important trait. The grouping of these essays into three strands - 'visions', 'narratives', and 'dialogues' - reflects the wide range of Saariaho's creative preoccupations while subscribing to a carefully structured succession of commentaries.
Call Number: ML410.S114 K37 2011Publication Date: 2011 -
Composers at Work: The Craft of Musical Composition 1450-1600
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How did Renaissance composers write their music? In this revolutionary look at a subject that has fascinated scholars for years, musicologist Jessie Ann Owens offers new and striking evidence that contrary to accepted theory, sixteenth-century composers did not use scores to compose--even to write complex vocal polyphony. Drawing on sources that include contemporary theoretical treatises, documents and letters, iconographical evidence, actual fragments of composing slates, and numerous sketches, drafts, and corrected autograph manuscripts, Owens carefully reconstructs the step-by-step process by which composers between 1450 and 1600 composed their music.
Call Number: ML430 .O94 1997Publication Date: 1997 -
Musical Notation in the West
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Musical notation is a powerful system of communication between musicians, using sophisticated symbolic, primarily non-verbal means to express musical events in visual symbols. Many musicians take the system for granted, having internalized it and their strategies for reading it and translating it into sound over long years of study and practice. This book traces the development of that system by combining chronological and thematic approaches to show the historical and musical context in which these developments took place. Simultaneously, the book considers the way in which this symbolic language communicates to those literate in it, discussing how its features facilitate or hinder fluent comprehension in the real-time environment of performance. Moreover, the topic of musical as opposed to notational innovation forms another thread of the treatment, as the author investigates instances where musical developments stimulated notational attributes, or notational innovations made practicable advances in musical style.
Call Number: ML431 .G75 2021Publication Date: 2021 -
The Finale in Western Instrumental Music
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The knowledge that finales are by tradition (and perhaps also necessarily) 'different' from other movements has been around a long time, but this is the first time that the special nature of finales in instrumental music has been examined comprehensively and in detail. Three main types of finale, labelled 'relaxant', 'summative', and 'valedictory', are identified. Each type is studied closely, with a wealth of illustration and analytical commentary covering the entire period from the Renaissance to the present day. The history of finales in five important genres -- suite, sonata, string quartet, symphony, and concerto -- is traced, and the parallels and divergences between these traditions are identified. Several wider issues are mentioned, including narrativity, musical rounding, inter-movement relationships, and the nature of codas. The book ends with a look at the finales of all of Shostakovich's string quartets, in which examples of most of the types may be found.
Call Number: ML448 .T25 2001Publication Date: 2001 -
Course in Musical Composition
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French composer and educator Vincent d'Indy differed from contemporaries Debussy and Ravel in his conservative political and philosophical ideas and in his musical style. This redaction and English translation of his Cours de composition musicale includes the introductory lectures for the course he taught at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. D'Indy's ideas about composition, best articulated in the lectures presented here, were unique in their combination of historical concepts and music theory. This is the first publication of d'Indy's work in English. In addition to a faithful translation, Gail Hilson Woldu provides annotations that clarify d'Indy's often complex concepts and correct his occasional errors of fact. In her introduction, Woldu places d'Indy in the world of French music education at the turn of the twentieth century, identifies the chief musical influences on the composer, and discusses the political and religious controversies surrounding the Schola Cantorum and the Paris Conservatoire.
Call Number: MT40 .I55213 2010Publication Date: 2010 -
Minds on Music: Composition for Creative and Critical Thinking
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Providing a solid foundation for planning and implementing composition lessons in grades preK-12, Michele Kaschub and Janice Smith share insights, guidelines, and classroom-tested lesson plans and scenarios for composition activities for students of various ages, physical capabilities, and ability levels.
Call Number: MT40 .K28 2009Publication Date: 2009 -
How to Write for Percussion: A Comprehensive Guide to Percussion Composition
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While composers and percussionists are working more closely than ever with one another, there are few resources that address this collaborative relationship in depth. However, Samuel Z. Solomon, himself a percussionist and teacher, offers a comprehensive examination of the issues that percussionists and composers encounter in How to Write for Percussion. The first edition, self-published in 2004, provided musicians and music programs the world over with practical and indispensable information about issues of notation, concert production, and much more. This new edition goes even further as Solomon offers more insights derived from his personal experience as a percussionist and teacher and from his collaborations with other musicians.
Call Number: MT40 .S82 2016Publication Date: 2016 -
The Craft of Musical Composition
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Originally published in the 1940s, Paul Hindemith's remarkable textbooks are still the outstanding works of their kind. In contrast to many musical textbooks written by academic musicians, these were produced by a man who could play every instrument of the orchestra, could compose a satisfying piece for almost every kind of ensemble, and who was one of the most stimulating teachers of his day. It is therefore not surprising that nearly forty years later these books should remain essential reading for the student and the professional musician.
Call Number: MT40.H5 U64 V.1-2Publication Date: 1984 -
The Anatomy of Melody: Exploring the Single Line of Song
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Drawn from the world's most beloved songs, the more than 70 examples in this book explore the history and crucial elements of melody, which is the very basis of song. Focusing solely on how simple musical lines combined with the right texts can make a catchy melodic phrase that lasts throughout the ages--without consideration of harmony, counterpoint, or other constructs--this unique guide allows readers a new insight into the composition of songs.
Call Number: MT47 .P37 2006Publication Date: 2006 -
Musical Creativity: Strategies and Tools in Composition and Improvisation
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This book represents a new approach to musical creativity, dealing with the semiotics, mathematical principles, and software for creativity processes. After a thorough introduction, the book offers a first practical part with a detailed tutorial for students in composition and improvisation, using musical instruments and music software. The second, theoretical part deals with historical, actual, and new principles of creative processes in music, based on the results and methods developed in the first author's book Topos of Music and referring to semiotics, predicative objects, topos theory, and object-oriented concept architectures. The third part of the book details four case studies in musical creativity, including an analysis of the six variations of Beethoven's sonata op. 109, a discussion of the creative process in a CD coproduced in 2011 by the first and second authors, a recomposition of Boulez's "Structures pour deux pianos" using the Rubato software module BigBang developed by the third author, and the Escher theorem from mathematical gesture theory in music.
Call Number: MT56 .M29 2011Publication Date: 2011 -
Musical Composition in the Context of Globalization: New Perspectives on Music History in the 20th and 21st Century (eBook)
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Since the early transformation of European music practice and theory in the cultural centers of Asia, Latin America, and Africa around 1900, music history has to be conceived globally - a challenge that musicology has hardly faced yet. This book discusses the effects of cultural globalization on processes of composition and distribution of art music in the 20th and 21st centuries. Christian Utz provides the foundations of a global music historiography, building on new models such as transnationalism, entangled histories, and reflexive globalization. The relationship between music and broader changes in society is placed at the center of attention and considered a pivotal music-historical dynamic.
Call Number: EBSCOhost EbooksPublication Date: 2021
Interlibrary Loan
Users are encouraged to search for items beyond University Libraries' catalog via RILM Abstracts of Music Literature and WorldCat. Materials not available in print or online may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. Please allow up to seven days for electronic delivery and up to fourteen days for delivery of physical items.