Music texts

elbobogrande · Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2003 1:20 pm Post subject:

I'm interested in reading more about music and musicology. I'm actually interested in "music philosophy" kinda a la John Cage, but not necessarily about Cage. Does anyone know of any good books on that kind of thing?
Thanks,
John
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ZeroMan · Heavyweight Member Joined: 21 Jul 2002 Posts: 1112

Check out The Theory of Harmony by Arnold Schoenberg. It's a challenging read, and it is much closer to a treatise on the philosphy of music than it is a text on harmony.

robert_white · Heavyweight Member Joined: 19 Feb 2003 Posts: 1583

others:

"Poetics of Music" Stravinsky
"Style and Idea" Schoenberg
"The Unanswered Question: The Norton Lectures" Bernstein

"Source Readings in Music History - The Twentieth Century" ed. Oliver Strunk
(there are other volumes of this series covering all musical time periods, by the way. This one has some really great parts.)

[ This Message was edited by: robert_white on 2003-06-26 12:22 ]

fuzzyjon79 · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2003 9:10 am Post subject:

Aaron Copland wrote an interesting book called "What to listen for in music." that seems to be really good.
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"It takes a big ole' sack of flour, to make a big ole' pan of biscuits!"

mcstock · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2003 9:41 am Post subject:

"A Composer's World" -- by Paul Hindemith

Two titles that aren't exactly what you've described but I found fascinating were:
Who Killed Classical Music?: Maestros, Managers, and Corporate Politics
by Norman Lebrecht
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1559724153/qid=1056908898/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-3392291-7635117?v=glance&s=books

and

Maestro Myth: Great Conductors in Pursuit of Power
by Norman Lebrecht http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0735100934/ref=pd_sim_books_1/104-3392291-7635117?v=glance&s=books

The Hindemith is probably out of print and the books by Lebrecht are kind of expensive so if anyone is interested in them you can ask your library about getting them on Interlibrary Loan. Takes two weeks or so and will probably be free or close to it.

Enjoy,
Matt

fuzzyjon79 · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2003 11:26 am Post subject:

I didn't know Hindemith wrote a book... now that is probably a very interesting read...
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"It takes a big ole' sack of flour, to make a big ole' pan of biscuits!"

ZeroMan · Heavyweight Member Joined: 21 Jul 2002 Posts: 1112