Book Description
Originally published in 1979, this book was reissued by C. F. Peters Corporation in 1994. The author, the composer Charles Wuorinen, describes the book in this way : "--this book is written by a composer and is addressed to other composers - intending or actual, amateur or professional. Thus it is similar in intent to certain older books on the subject like Thomas Morley's "A Plain and Easie Introduction to Practical Musicke" (1597), for instance...It outlines present practice, and while it can be used for purely didactic purposes, it can also be employed in composing "real" music.""In writing this book, I intended it primarily as a guide for composers in search of practical advice and models of how one might work compositionally. But since my presentation made extensive use of the twelve-tone system in its simplest and most easily describable form, the book was taken as a primer in that system. The fact that I used twelve-tone relations for convenience and only because of their simplicity was somehow overlooked.Perhaps today in 1994 (the year this book was reissued after its first publication in 1979) the book may make a slightly different contribution than it originally did: to offer a basic outline of a musical system and method that has proved immensly rich since its introduction by Schoenberg seventy-five years ago, as well as to provide a few practical tips."

---Charles Wuorinen ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Good introduction to 12 tone composition
This is the clearest and most complete
description of 12 tone composition of the
several I've read.

Twelve-tone music is out-dated
Far from Wuorinen's opinion that tanality would one fade into the historical distance, it is in fact atonal and serial practices which have been assimilated by tonal ones. Much of the background information Wuorinen gives is based as much on his own opinion as anything resembling professional composition. This book is useful for tonal composers who have any interest at all in atonal procedures for things like film score (sci-fi, horror), and any other plainly disaasociative musical effect. I do not recommend this book to the novice, but only to those who are practiced using traditional tonal technique.

12-tone yes, but so much more.
This book is an excellent introduction to major techniques for composing music in the pan-tonal (atonal), rather than the tonal tradition.

The emphasis on processes and techniques that are beyond basic may make the title seem misleading to the unprepared reader.But there is so much more to this book than its presentation of serial methods.Once you see through this 12-tone layer, however, the book really is also about composition of music.

The 12-tone techniques themselves occupy only the last third of the book.Even though the author does seem to express a somewhat veiled disdain for the older "backward-looking" tonal system, Wourinen begins with discussion, examples, and exercises that help the student understand the fundamental differences between tonal and pan-tonal melodic and harmonic organization.The emphasis is still on the requirements and possiblities of a twelve tone row, but the student who wishes to understand many different compositional possibilities will learn a lot from these early chapters.

More than this, however, every chapter includes discussions of principles and processes of composition in general.Wourinen points out the decisions composers must make at every stage of a composition.He paints a vivid picture of how a composer must form a work as a whole from the beginning, gradually bringing all the parts into greater focus and detail.And he gives detailed instruction and exercise in the process of revision, noting what kind of changes constitute a surface revision versus a more substantial revision in structure.

It is this inclusion of general information about the composer's real tasks that elevate this book to better than average.The gems of experience and insight that go beyond the main topic of the book remind me of the depths of knowledge one also finds in Schoenberg's texts for counterpoint and harmony.The book is smaller and lighter than Schoenberg, and so easy to read and follow.It is not the only composition text one would want, but even people not interested in pan-tonal style could gain insights from reading it.

To The Point
Using the 12 tone system, "Simple Composition" is a practical approach to composition.While thory is explained, the focus of the book is on how to use 12 tone rows to create music that sounds like, well - 12 tone music.I prefer this book to similar books on the subject because of this focus.

Excellent Introduction to Some Composition Techniques
In this age, the composer has an astounding task: what does he (or she) do when any concievable sound is, at least in principle, available to the composer at any instant?How does one start?And how does one move from an inspiration to a composition of actual details?Charles Wuorinen's clearly-written book offers a number of time-tested techniques for working out some of the details of composition.He offers excercises with which one can experiment with various parameters of sound, and discover what manipulations make what sort of difference.Nevertheless, Mr. Wuorinen does not worship the methods outlined in the book, and realizes the limit of their applicability in most compositions."A compositional method exists only to write pieces," he writes."It is not sacred, and when the piece has reached, through application of the method, a sufficient degree of completeness, it will begin to assert its own rights and needs.These may often seem to contradict the original method or call for changes in the work's design.Do not hesitate when such a situation arises.If the method has served long enough to allow the work it has produced to contradict it, it has more than fulfilled its function."

Since some people question the value of studying composition, particularly serialist composition, I feel it is necessary to justify this study in general.Composers have more resources than ever from which to choose, and in composing a piece one must start somewhere.We need not fill in sonata forms (as did Mozart and Beethoven) or write strict fugues (as Bach did), but the great composers have recognized some need for a development process.The serialist process of development has resulted in some very beautiful compositions, and so it seems to me that I should be able to call on that resource as a composer.This method allows me a multitude of options as to how to fill in a large concept or extrapolate from smaller ones, while I can still make or decline to make the final decision as to what I keep and what I discard.Serialism should not write the piece for a composer, just as fugues and sonatas do not completely write themselves.The twelve-tone system is one of many valuable and viable resources for developing compositions. ... Read more

Book Description
Charles Wuorinen: A Bio-Bibliography is a chronicle, a lexicon, a manual, a narrative, and a testament to the life and work of an American musical genius. The work contains a biography, discography, interview, comprehensive listing of works and detailed roster of performances, and almost 1,200 annotated citations of writings about the music of this important composer. The oral history component--the interview--is the foundation of the book in that it expresses the composer's philosophy of music and of life and serves as a contrast to the many annotations featuring critical commentary on his music. No one even remotely connected with contemporary music and the arguments and discussions thereof should be without this book. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on September 1, 1995. The length of the article is 830 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Charles Wuorinen: A Bio-Bibliography.
Author: Carl Rahkonen
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 1995
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: v52Issue: n1Page: p112(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
I believe this is the first edition of the full score of this work. ... Read more