Books that all composers need: Suggestions.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    So here are a couple, please share your own:

    Fux: Counterpoint from 'Gradus ad Parnassum'
    Piston: Orchestration
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,046
    Persichetti: 20th Century Harmony. A pragmatic look at the tools developed in that century.
    A good modern orchestration book. Either Adler or Blatter are good (Adler has a CD set you can get for the examples). Forsyth is good for string writing and entertainment value. (not something you can generally say of orchestration books.). For weird outlier instruments, it's nice to have access to the Stiller Handbook of Instrumentation.
    Counterpoint: I never got on with species; A. Tilman Merritt is a good non-species Renaissance approach that deals with actual music. There's no real equivalent to the Persichetti here, though Humphrey Searle tried.
    A good 3rd-party book on engraving in Finale or Sibelius. People assume they will get publication-grade copy without work, and they won't.
    And a book that (AFAIK) doesn't exist: How To Make A Living As A Composer. The Meet the Composer "Commissioning Music" guide could be one chapter of this hypothetical book (though its fee schedule is very NYC)
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    And a book that (AFAIK) doesn't exist: How To Make A Living As A Composer.

    I think we've been waiting for that one since 6,000 BC
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,945
    No book was needed until the 19th century, because there was a perennial rule: find a wealthy patron.
  • rollingrj
    Posts: 345
    Don't overlook the obvious: Principles of Orchestration by Nicolai Rimski-Korsakov. I don't believe it's passe.
    Thanked by 1mrcopper
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 774
    Not to sound dismissive, but really, a composer, like any other writer, needs no books; only lots of pencils... and even more erasers. And his ears, of course. Those can be trained by books: the ones containing music from the masters.
    Thanked by 5Salieri CHGiffen ryand hilluminar kenstb
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    A good 3rd-party book on engraving in Finale or Sibelius.

    Suggestions?
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Jeffrey Quick: Thanks for the tip-off on the Persichetti. One of my favorite 20th Century composers.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,151
    A good 3rd-party book on engraving in Finale or Sibelius. People assume they will get publication-grade copy without work, and they won't.
    Fixed.

    Really, you need something like Elaine Gould's "Behind Bars" to understand what publication-grade engraving entails. While it can be done in Finale or Sibelius, presumably also with other systems, the default Finale, Sibelius, LilyPond styles might come close and work for in-house use, but usually they fall short of publication-grade copy. And don't be fooled that what some of the published choral music looks like is really publication-grade .... it's not.
    Thanked by 2irishtenor noel jones, aago
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,151
    Piston's "Orchestration" was mentioned. I grew up with the three volume set by Piston: "Harmony", "Counterpoint", and "Orchestration" ... but I've not consulted them for at least 20-25 years.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    The Art of Fugue
    The Musical Offering
    Goldberg Variations
    Well Tempered Clavier

    If you read those (at the keyboard), at least 100 times for each one, and simultaneously study the vertical and horizontal theory, you will be able to compose in a similar vein. No other books are needed.

    PS... Stay away from Mozart.
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  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    RR

    I just read your post after I posted my list... right on.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,046
    I'd forgotten Gould as our copy is reference, but yeah, that's the thing. We have a couple of books here specific to programs too...I'll look at them on Sunday and report.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Counterintuitive choice

    THE PSALTER. or

    THE ZEN OF MOTORCYCLE REPAIR

    Choose wisely, Grasshopper.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    THE ZEN OF MOTORCYCLE REPAIR

    Do you mean Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?

    Highly recommended.
    Thanked by 1Cantus67
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Yeah, SmartyPants. I may be old, infirm and frail of memory, but I'm up in Napa about to go to Chateux Montellena and Regusci wineries, and you're down in.....uh.....Berkeley. You and MJM can sign up for free medical TCP* I suppose.
    Ah, the debauched soul at rest...

    *or is that medicinal STP
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    The bible.
    Thanked by 6CHGiffen Adam Wood francis eft94530 kenstb Salieri
  • kenstb
    Posts: 369
    Principles of Orchestration by Nicolai Rimski-Korsakov can't hurt. I would add as a reference, The Orchestra by Ebenezer Prout.
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 756
    Listen to, read and perform as much good music as possible.
    Thanked by 3Adam Wood francis Salieri
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Ebenezer Prout.

    Isn't that the "Great Fugue" in G-minor?
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    Jeppesen's counterpoint. Third vote for Rimsky-Korsakov, contains interesting notions in addition to plain instrument ranges. For stretching your mind, not for joining a school, HIndemith "Craft of Musical Composition", Schillinger and Schenker works (I don't recall titles ...)
    Thanked by 2Salieri CHGiffen
  • Cantus67Cantus67
    Posts: 207
    I'd have to say An Introduction to the Technique of Palestrina by Andrews. I'd say that's the foundation of all good church music.
    If you can find it.

    http://www.amazon.com/An-Introduction-Technique-Palestrina-Andrews/dp/B0000CK7AJ
    Thanked by 1Salieri
  • ClemensRomanusClemensRomanus
    Posts: 1,023
    I love the Hindemith comp. books and Hanson's Harmonic Materials of Modern Music.
    Thanked by 1ZacPB189
  • ZacPB189ZacPB189
    Posts: 70
    Berlioz's/Strauss's "Treatise on Orchestration", which can be found on IMSLP. This one uses more examples than Rimsky-Korsakov, who only uses his own pieces. Strauss is also very good at mentioning what advice Berlioz gives is dated and/or a personal rant.

    "The Correct Order of Fundamental Harmonies: A Treatise on Fundamental Basses, and Their Inversions, and Their Substitutes" by Simon Sechter.

    Scores and Recordings of composers one wishes to emulate (in my case Bruckner, Genzmer, Hovhaness, and various Baroque composers like Bach, Biber, Gabrieli, etc...)

    Any Norton Anthology one can get his/her hands on will be invaluable.

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