Customer Reviews

New Directions in Music

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Before Alex Ross' "The Rest is Noise" takes over the discussion, it seems only fair to put in a good word about the one and original book on twentieth century music, the one that's the most even-handed and is aware of all the trends--David Cope's "New Directions in Music."

I first read this book in its first edition back in 1974. It was a most valuable guide through a world I'd only become aware of in 1972, a world infinitely fascinating, but bewilderingly immense. A fair and detailed guide like this was exactly what I needed. This is as unapologetic a book as one could wish, too. The emphasis for everything covered, from Cowell to antimusic, is descriptive rather than judgmental. So you always feel like you're getting the straight story.

The most recent edition, the seventh, is from 2001, so covers three more decades worth of music making than the rather slender volume I started on. Despite a fine book by Michael Nyman (Experimental music: Cage and beyond), David Cope's book remains the single most comprehensive and most valuable survey of twentieth century music I know. Emphasis on the word "music." Other books on new music, including the most recent one alluded to above, spend a lot of time on history and biography and psychology and physiology. Those are all interesting things, to be sure, but music often seems in the other books a mere by-product of social and emotional forces.

Not so in "New Directions in Music." This is simply and consistently a book about music.

Light on content and substance, this book is mostly a compiled bibliography. It's as if the intent was "If you want something interesting to read, go read this other book." Topics are not treated with much depth and more could be gained with a few hours surfing the internet.

Obviously not everyone agrees but I think this is a very important contribution to the literature of post-tonal musics. I feel it's intended as a textbook as it's awful expensive for a paperbound book. The advantage to this book vs. random browsing of the internet is its progressive, linear discussion of the early experimentalists throught to the electronic and minimal era of the late 1990s. The bibliographies and discographies are vast and could provide a lifetime of research.
As a composer and musical researcher himself Cope brings perspective, understanding and depth to the material. I have to confess I was able to acquire this (7th) edition for much less than its list price at a used book store. Perhaps you can get a copy from your library before committing the cash for it.

It was good to buy a new book with a low price but the delibery was very late than I expected.