Music Notation in the Twentieth Century: A Practical Guidebook [Paperback]

Kurt Stone (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393950530 | ISBN-13: 978-0393950533 | Publication Date: November 17, 1980 | Edition: 1st

In this comprehensive and definitive survey of current notation procedures, Kurt Stone has brought order to a field traditionally fraught with confusion and idiosyncrasy. He not only describes and recommends new methods for notating modern music, thereby establishing standard procedures for the present and future, but integrates them with traditional practices still in use. The result is a guide to all forms of notation used in serious music today.

Stone is undoubtedly one of the world's leading authorities on contemporary music notation and its problems. As head of the Index of New Musical Notation, he collected and categorized the myriad new devices appearing in published music of this century. In collaboration with professional performers and conductors, he evaluated these devices in order to determine their effectiveness in practical application. At the International Conference on New Music Notation 1974, a consensus was sought from the eighty participating musicians from eighteen different countries. The results have been incorporated into this volume in the clearest and most direct way. Traditional notation is given detailed treatment, constituting, as it does, the basis for many of the innovative devices. The book is organized to facilitate the location of specific information and for easy reference. A minutely detailed index is provided as an additional and indispensable tool.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (November 17, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393950530
• ISBN-13: 978-0393950533
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #138,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful to expand one's knowledge of notation to include modernism, but unfortunately a bit dated, October 8, 2007

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Music Notation in the Twentieth Century: A Practical Guidebook (Paperback)

Kurt Stone was chief editor of Associated Music Publishers in the early 1950s when the first works by high modernists such as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, and Luciano Berio appeared. The revolutionary new music of these modern composers called for new notational devices, and Stone knew that music engravers not only had to be brought up to speed, but also work to create some standards so performers wouldn't get frustrated by differing means of notation. He participated in a conference in Ghent in 1974, and then out of the work of the conference put together MUSIC NOTATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: A Practical Guidebook. Though Stone meant his work for engravers, the performer or simple fan of modernism will also find this an interesting work as well.

When it comes to the Darmstadt generation and early mature Elliott Carter, this is an excellent resource. Stone shows the notation of such concepts as microtones (in all their competing standards), aperiodic rhythms, tone clusters, and aleatorism. There are individual chapters for many instruments: harp, woodwinds, percussion, organ, etc. One form of notation that Stone does not cover is graphical notation, the scores-as-artwork approach by e.g. Cardew in his "Treatise". Stone explains that these scores intentionally avoid any standardization, but he does provide a few samples for the reader.

One does regret, however, that Stone's book was never updated after its publication in 1980. Indeed, much of the material dates back to the Ghent conference several years earlier. As a result, one misses notation like Per Norgard's golden section rhythms (which many find challenging when they first see them) and Stockhausen's continuing inventions. A second edition is vitally needed. Nonetheless, if you can read music and want to better understand the scores of the high modernists, Stone's book is very much worth a read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for a music engraver--too bad it's out of print, May 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Music Notation in the Twentieth Century: A Practical Guidebook (Paperback)

This book is very useful for the professional music engraver. It covers many topics that "traditional" engraving texts tend not to cover as far as 20th Century engraving practices are concerned.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Music Notation text (well worth hunting down), December 19, 2001

By 

C. Broom (Glasgow) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Music Notation in the Twentieth Century: A Practical Guidebook (Paperback)

There are in exisstence a number of useful music notation texts. For quick reference, there is Tom gerou's 'Essential Dictionary of Music Notation'. For an in-depth examination of engraving conventions, there is Ted Ross's 'The Art of Music Engraving & Processing' (includes a history of the processes involved), and a number of titles by Gardner Read. But for all-round comprehensiveness (especially pertaining to contemporary music notation practice), Kurt Stone's book is without a shadow of a doubt the one to get.