Composition and Songwriting
Recommended Books
The recommended books below include tutorials for composing and songwriting in many of the popular genres covered in this guide. Most are classified in MT 67 (Composition. Popular music) while others can be found under related topics like improvisation, instrumentation, and arranging. The Jazz and Musical Theatre research guides, respectively, also have dedicated pages on Improvisation and stage Production and Composition. Books are sorted by their call numbers for ease of browsing. Hover over the info icon to see a description.
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Music Composition for Film and Television
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Learn film-scoring techniques from one of the great film/television composers of our time. Lalo Schifrin shares his insights into the intimate relationship between music and drama. The book is illustrated with extended excerpts from his most iconic scores such as Mission: Impossible, Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt, and many others and peppered with anecdotes from inside the Hollywood studios. Schifrin reveals the technical details of his own working approach, which has earned him six Oscar nominations, 21 Grammy nominations (with four awards), and credits on hundreds of major productions. Includes the full score of Schifrin's Fanfare for Screenplay and Orchestra, a treasure-trove of unfettered dramatic sound painting, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and a great thesis on the emblematic language of film music.
Call Number: MT64.M65 S35 2011 (Oversize)Publication Date: 2011 -
A Composer's Guide to Game Music
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A comprehensive, practical guide to composing video game music, from acquiring the necessary skills to finding work in the field. Music in video games is often a sophisticated, complex composition that serves to engage the player, set the pace of play, and aid interactivity. Composers of video game music must master an array of specialized skills not taught in the conservatory, including the creation of linear loops, music chunks for horizontal resequencing, and compositional fragments for use within a generative framework. In A Composer's Guide to Game Music, Winifred Phillips--herself an award-winning composer of video game music--provides a comprehensive, practical guide that leads an aspiring video game composer from acquiring the necessary creative skills to understanding the function of music in games to finding work in the field. Musicians and composers may be drawn to game music composition because the game industry is a multibillion-dollar, employment-generating economic powerhouse, but, Phillips writes, the most important qualification for a musician who wants to become a game music composer is a love of video games. Phillips offers detailed coverage of essential topics, including musicianship and composition experience; immersion; musical themes; music and game genres; workflow; working with a development team; linear music; interactive music, both rendered and generative; audio technology, from mixers and preamps to software; and running a business. A Composer's Guide to Game Music offers indispensable guidance for musicians and composers who want to deploy their creativity in a dynamic and growing industry, protect their musical identities while working in a highly technical field, and create great music within the constraints of a new medium.
Call Number: MT64.V53 P45 2014Publication Date: 2014 -
The Billboard Guide to Writing and Producing Songs That Sell: How to Create Hits in Today's Music Industry
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Ask any record company A&R person, artist manager, or record producer: What are they looking for? Hits, they all say. No problem. The Billboard Guide to Writing and producing Songs that Sell gives songwriters the tools they need to write hits that will open doors, create careers, and speak to listeners around the world. Author Eric Bealle, a respected music industry veteran, unveils the formula to creating a successful song - that perfect balance between the comfort of the familiar and the shock of the unexpected. With tips from successful songwriters, guidance from A&R pros and the author s personal knowledge of both the creative process and the demands of the market, this book demystifies the music industry s ultimate challenge: creating that chart-topping breakthrough.
Call Number: MT67 .B43 2009Publication Date: 2009 -
This Business of Songwriting
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To make money, song-writers need a firm, realistic grasp of how songs generate income. This volume demystifies the process of doing business as a songwriter. It walks the reader step-by-step through the process of starting and operating a publishing company, teaches how to pitch songs to publishers, and more.
Call Number: MT67 .B49 2006Publication Date: 2006 -
Writing Musical Theater
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This guide to the modern musical covers the entire process of creating a show, from finding and working out the initial idea, through to the ways in which writers can market a finished show and get it produced. For the interested theatregoer and writers, it is written in a lively and user-friendly style and illustrated with numerous examples.
Call Number: MT67 .C6 2006Publication Date: 2006 -
The Philosophy of Modern Song
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The Philosophy of Modern Song is Bob Dylan's first book of new writing since 2004's Chronicles: Volume One--and since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his extraordinary insight into the nature of popular music. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan's unique prose. They are mysterious and mercurial, poignant and profound, and often laugh-out-loud funny. And while they are ostensibly about music, they are really meditations and reflections on the human condition. Running throughout the book are nearly 150 carefully curated photos as well as a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem and add to the work's transcendence. In 2020, with the release of his outstanding album Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan became the first artist to have an album hit the Billboard Top 40 in each decade since the 1960s. The Philosophy of Modern Song contains much of what he has learned about his craft in all those years, and like everything that Dylan does, it is a momentous artistic achievement.
Call Number: MT67 .D95 2022Publication Date: 2022 -
How to Rap: The Art and Science of the Hip-Hop MC
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Clipse, Cypress Hill, Nelly, Public Enemy, Remy Ma, Schoolly D, A Tribe Called Quest, will.i.am--these are just some of the acclaimed artists offering tips and advice in this compelling how-to. Delivering countless candid and exclusive first-person insights from interviews with more than one hundred of the most innovative artists, author Paul Edwards examines the dynamics of rap from every region and in every form--mainstream and underground, current and classic--and covers everything from content and flow to rhythm and delivery. A first-of-its-kind guide, How to Rap provides a wealth of insight and rapping lore that will benefit beginners and pros alike.
Call Number: MT67 .E38 2009Publication Date: 2009 -
Beginning Songwriting: Writing Your Own Lyrics, Melodies, and Chords
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Learn to write songs! This book presents the basic concepts of popular songwriting, such as song construction, creativity techniques, melodic and harmonic development, how to write memorable lyrics, and other core topics. Hands-on exercises make it practical, and the accompanying online recording illustrates the concepts for those who don't yet read music.
Call Number: MT67 .S813 2015Publication Date: 2015 -
The Art of Songwriting
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How do you turn songwriting talent into a professional career? This essential guide tackles that question, alongside many others, taking songwriters through all the developmental phases and commercial experiences along the way in order to inspire and encourage the reader to find their own voice and write successfully within their chosen genre. Collating the best-available expertise with fresh ideas about the industry, Andrew West equips the reader with what every productive songwriter needs to know: how to write communicative songs that express meaning and convey individuality; how to develop songs into records; how the writer can function as a marketer and seller of original work; how domestic and international markets operate; and how to act and interact meaningfully within the culture of those market. Armed with this knowledge, the songwriter is able to engage creatively and financially to make the most of their potential.
Call Number: MT67 .W385 2016Publication Date: 2016 -
Writing Music for Commercials: Television, Radio, and New Media
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In Writing Music for Commercials: Television, Radio, and New Media, professor, composer, arranger, and producer Michael Zager describes the process of composing and arranging music specifically for commercials across the growing variety of media formats. Writing music for commercials requires composers not only learn the craft of writing short-form compositions that can stand on their own, but also understand the advertising business. In this third edition of his original Writing Music for Television and Radio Commercials, Zager walks starting composers through the business and art of writing music that aims for a product's target audience and, when done well, hits its mark. Chapter by chapter, Zager covers a broad array of topics: how to approach and analyze commercials from a specifically musical perspective, the range of compositional techniques for underscoring and composing jingles, the standard expectations and techniques for arranging and orchestration, and finally the composing of music for radio commercials, corporate videos, infomercials, theatrical trailers, video games, Internet commercials, websites, and web series (webisodes). This third edition has been updated to include more in-depth analysis of the changing landscape of music writing for modern media, with critical information on composing not only for the Web but for mobile applications, from video-driven advertising in online newspapers to electronic greeting cards. Zager also includes new interviews with industry professionals, updated business information, the latest sound design concepts, and much more. Writing Music for Commercials: Television, Radio, and New Media features: -Easy-to-read chapters for beginning and intermediate music composition students -Over a hundred graphics and musical examples -Interviews with industry professionals -An assortment of assignments to train and test readers, preparing them for the world of writing music for various media -Online audio samples that illustrate the book's principles Writing Music for Commercials is designed not only for composers but for students and professionals at every level.
Call Number: MT67 .Z34 2015Publication Date: 2015 -
Instrumental Jazz Arranging: A Comprehensive and Practical Guide
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Instrumental Jazz Arranging consists of a systematic presentation of the essential techniques and materials of jazz arranging. Authors Mike Tomaro and John Wilson draw upon 50+ years of combined teaching experience to bring you a book that addresses all of the basic needs for beginning arrangers. Topics include counterpoint/linear writing, jazz harmony, compositional techniques, and orchestration. All topics serve to address issues concerned with true arranging in great detail. The book may be used in both individual and classroom instructional situations. The online audio includes many of the examples in the book. The audio is accessed online using the unique code inside each book and can be streamed or downloaded. The audio files include PLAYBACK+, a multi-functional audio player that allows you to slow down audio without changing pitch, set loop points, change keys, and pan left or right.
Call Number: MT73.5 .T66 2009 (Oversize)Publication Date: 2009 -
Contingent Encounters: Improvisation in Music and Everyday Life (eBook)
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Contingent Encounters offers a sustained comparative study of improvisation as it appears between music and everyday life. Drawing on work in musicology, cultural studies, and critical improvisation studies, as well as his own performing experience, Dan DiPiero argues that comparing improvisation across domains calls into question how improvisation is typically recognized. By comparing the music of Eric Dolphy, Norwegian free improvisers, Mr. K, and the Ingrid Laubrock/Kris Davis duo with improvised activities in everyday life (such as walking, baking, working, and listening), DiPiero concludes that improvisation appears as a function of any encounter between subjects, objects, and environments. Bringing contingency into conversation with the utopian strain of critical improvisation studies, DiPiero shows how particular social investments cause improvisation to be associated with relative freedom, risk-taking, and unpredictability in both scholarship and public discourse. Taking seriously the claim that improvisation is the same thing as living, Contingent Encounters overturns long-standing assumptions about the aesthetic and political implications of this notoriously slippery term.
Call Number: JSTOR and Project MUSE Open Access BooksPublication Date: 2022
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.