Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory (3rd Edition) [Hardcover]

Joseph N. Straus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0131898906 | ISBN-13: 978-0131898905 | Edition: 3

Emphasizing hands-on contact with the music—through playing, singing, listening, and analyzing—this book provides six chapters on theory, each illustrated with musical examples and fully worked-out analyses, all drawn largely from the “classical” pre-war repertoire by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartok, Berg, and Webern. This book offers exceptionally clear, simple explanations of basic theoretical concepts for the post-tonal music of the twentieth century. Chapter topics include basic concepts and definitions; pitch-class sets; centricity, referential collections, and triadic post-tonality; basic twelve-tone operations; and more twelve-tone topics. Musicians and enthusiasts looking to explore advanced topics in music theory and analysis.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A discussion of atonal, twelve-tone, and centric music. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Designed for a course in twenty-first-century techniques and analysis, this text offers a clear, comprehensive introduction to the basic concepts of post-tonal theory. Each concept is clearly explained and richly illustrated with examples from the musical literature. The text contains model analyses as well as carefully graduated exercises that involve playing, singing, composing, and analyzing.

The third edition stays abreast of recent theoretical developments by including discussions of transformational networks and graphs, contour theory, atonal voice leading, triadic post-tonality (including neotonality), inversional symmetry, and interval cycles. As a result, this text is not only a primer of basic concepts but also an introduction to the current state of post-tonal theory, with its rich array of theoretical concepts and analytical tools.

The third edition also features a wide range of composers and musical styles. Although the "classical" prewar repertoire of music by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartok, Webern, and Berg still comprises the musical core, theoretical concepts are now also illustrated with music by Adams, Babbitt, Berio, Boulez, Britten, Cage, Carter, Cowell, Crawford, Crumb, Debussy, Feldman, Glass, Gubaidulina, Ives, Ligeti, Messiaen, Musgrave, Reich, Ruggles, Sessions, Shostakovich, Stockhausen, Varese, Wolpe, Wuorinen, and Zwillich.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 3 edition (August 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131898906
• ISBN-13: 978-0131898905
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #311,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars from the trenches, January 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

This is simply the best introduction to musical set theory in print, and one of the most pedagogically sound theory texts available for any topic. Straus writes exceedingly well, and his organization and pacing are excellent. This is not "watered-down Allen Forte," it is a humane spin on rather abstract musical concepts in language musicians can understand. Forte's and Perle's works are invaluable to the discipline, but their books are almost unreadable.

Straus's revised edition expands the repertoire only minimally (more could be done here), but the new exercises (particularly the composition sections) are an excellent addition. An average undergraduate class can make it through the text in a single semester with plenty of time left -- about four or five weeks -- to cover additional repertoire and topics.

Dr. O

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uninformed reviewers, May 9, 2004

By 

Luke Ma (Santa Barbara, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

Reviewers of such a book as Intro. to Post-Tonal Theory should know a bit about set-class theory before trying to discredit Straus's work. "A Reader"'s review (titled "Inaccurate") is itself blatantly wrong. Set [0,3,4,5,8,10,11], this reviewer proposes, does not yield prime form if one applies Straus's methods to it. What the reviewer doesn't seem to realize is that he has failed to apply the first rule of finding normal order, of finding the MINIMUM SPAN of a set, which Straus does tell readers to do. The aforementioned septachord must be put in normal order first with minimum span (that is, 0,1,2,7,8,9) before applying Straus's right-to-left rule. A review must be critical but such a mistaken reading must either be ignorance or willful malevolence, neither of which is appropriate here. "from the real world of music" is arguably a worse review, throwing up a veil of unnecessary "big words," to use the vernacular, to hide a critique based upon nothing. What abuses of terminology, what logical fallacies, and what errors does this reviewer refer to? And if Straus's book is "cliff notes", then what is the real version? I don't discredit these reviews from a difference of opinion on my part but rather I am disgusted by the ignorance present in these reviews.

Having said all that, is is no surpise that I firmly believe that Straus's text belongs at the top of a short list of anyone who wishes to pursue pitch class set theory. It is indeed designed as a text and as such is often times clearer and more practical than the Allen Forte original. He engages precisely the repertoire Forte set out to engage (the second Viennese school mainly) and supports his clear explanations with convincing musical examples and step-by-step analyses. The positive reviews here obviously outweight the astoundingly ignorant negative ones. As well, this book has the blessing of the majority of the music theory community behind it, and rightly so. This is a valuable book that deserves a place on any theorist's (or aspiring theorists's) shelves.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful, February 24, 2003

By 

Paul Nelson (Annapolis, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

I like this book a lot. It is a practical, balanced, to-the-point guide. I have been composing for a long time (14+ years) but I've only been studying it full time for 3 years now, and I found that the book really helped to clarify a lot of my thinking about pitch collections, 20th century harmonies, and 20th century compositional techniques.

RE: The Prime Form debate. There are two methods for computing the prime form, the "Forte" and "Rahn" method. This book uses the "Rahn" method and is perfectly consistent throughout. While this is a minor issue, because it only affect 5 pitch class sets (of 200), perhaps it would be good to add a paragraph about the differences in a future revision to help beginniners avoid confusion.