Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Suggestions for our recommended readings

Is there a book about harmony and general composing(focusing more on orchestra) for a bit less advanced people? Having only basic knowledge of music theory and such. I intend buying a book of this kind but I don't want to waste money on something I would have to struggle with to understand.
 
Henry Brant, Textures and Timbres. Simply the most scientific and categorized look at orchestral combos out there, the most advanced and narrow scoped look of the subject of orchestration proper. Seems like most 'orch' books are just instrumentation manuals with a chapter on orchestral combos that is very unsystemized. 250 pgs of this book later and you will learn a thing or two.

For film guides, emerging film composer by richard bellis, and reel world by jeff rona or for some reason both not currently on the list. let's change that!
 
Mixing Secrets for The Small Studio by Mike Senior. Amazing book, by far the best resource on audio production I've read.

http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807?tag=honestlyhones-20 (http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Sm ... lyhones-20)
 
http://petruccilibrary.ca/files/img...in_C_Trait___de_l_harmonie__Max_Eschig__2.pdf

Traite de l'Harmonie by CH. Koechlin [French]
and
Harmonie - Lehre by Josef Foerster [German but the author is Czech]
https://urresearch.rochester.edu/fi...onalItem.action?itemId=20987&itemFileId=68686

Are, in my opinion, two of the best/top 5 books on traditional Harmony.

I would really like to see translation of these two books in English.

Another book which is combination of the two above is "Harmonija" by Natko Devcic [Serbo-Croatian].

Great book on XXth century composition is "Tehnika komponovanja u muzici XX veka" [Composing Techniques in Music of the XXth Century] by the Czech composer and teacher Ctirad Kohoutek. Originally written in Czech but I've read it in Serbo-Croatian translation.
 
And books on Contemporary notation of extended techniques is interesting also .

This one is good but a bit outdated some places:

Music Notation in the Twentieth Century: A Practical Guidebook
Kurt Stone

this is the new bible :

Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation
Elaine Gould

When it comes to orchestration this is also a valuable resource. An online version of the Rimsky Korsakov
Principles of Orchestration:

http://northernsounds.com/forum/forumdisplay.php/77-Principles-of-Orchestration
 
Last edited:
Not directly books about composition, but these two books are fundamental reading if you want to understand (classical) music:

Charles Rosen, 'The Classical Style'. Fantastic analyses, and explains what art music is all about. Helped me understand much of the deeper meaning of music and art. Nicely written too, so it is a pleasure to read.

Hepokoski/Darcy, 'Elements of a Sonata Theory'. Revolutionized the way we understand sonata form. It's a voluminous theory book, so no easy read. But it's essential if you care about sonata form - the most important form in western music. Knowledge about form can help greatly for composition. In fact, I think that many times people get stuck and don't know what to do with a sketch or musical idea, it is because they don't know about musical form and thus can not use it's concepts to help them build a piece. Tough but rewarding read.
 
Just discovered this Instrument Reference Chart, and I find it very useful.
http://api.ning.com/files/d4Ril5vezVLAdT3M3SjjZz6qqdex00o57b9pp*svq-qK3V9UOBisw9P8nj1pnNusbGLGRBo93k-3EOKZXt3iMQ__/InstrumentReferenceChartv4.pdf
 
Hi everyone!

I'm a composer from England and wanted to show everyone a great new pamphlet my friend JJay Bertume, a great composer, made. JJay truly is a master of his craft and knows all the ins of outs of music theory.

(I'll leave His YouTube channel link here: https://www.youtube.com/user/JJBerthume)
(And his Website link here: https://jjayberthumemusic.com)

The recently released 30 page Thematic Development pamphlet is a phenomenal and thorough resource, and in my opinion a must have item in the composers tool kit.

It's extremely comprehensive and well written; it includes all there is to know about the topic with great examples often linked to YouTube in the footnotes.

It's really cheap ($5), I highly recommend buying it, I can't stress how much it's helped me!
I hope you consider giving it a look through, here it is: https://sellfy.com/jjb-music-education-resources/p/nm5mjh/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom