Customer Reviews

Simple Composition

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

This book, by the great composer Charles Wuorinen, provides the clearest instruction in the basics of 12 tone compositional practice imaginable. The approach here is clearly and simply on how to create, extend and use 12 tone compositional materials, pitch and rhythmic,to generate surface detail and formal design. Any student of contemporary musical practice, whether composer or simply interested musician, will be delighted by this wonderful text, and also by the composers own examples, which illuminate each lesson, every step of the way.Simple Composition is simply a great book by a master composer!

Another reviewer has accused this book of bearing a deceptive title. This is in fact not entirely fair. It is true that if you are approaching this book without a reasonably cultured ear, it will be too much; if you already are proficient at reading complicated music away from a piano, however, this book serves as an excellent introduction to techniques of serious contemporary composition. It utilizes dodecaphonic techniques (in the Babbitt-ian tradition), but many of the principles expounded are general enough to be applied to other types of atonal music. While the book, to the eyes of an experienced composer, might seem introductory, Mr. Wuorinen's presentation allows for a great deal of individual exploration and expansion. This speaks well for Mr. Wuorinen as a teacher. Moreover, anyone who has heard his compositions could hardly deny his greatness as a composer. Certainly, Mr. Wuorinen stands among such great contemporary American composers as Elliott Carter and Milton Babbit. If it is your desire to learn formulaic techniques for producing reactionary pap, this is not the book for you. This is a book for those willing to work hard to produce real music.

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

I leave it to you to judge how seriously to take this book from a quote within it:

"While the tonal system, in an atrophied or vestigial form, is still used today in popular and commercial music, and even occasionally in the works of backward-looking serious composers, it is no longer employed by serious composers of the mainstream. It has been replaced or succeeded by the 12-tone system."

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.

This is one of those books that fools you with the title. A book purporting to teach should start with the students prior knowledge other wise its ineffective or worse, confusing. Perhaps the title should be Composition without direction. Frankly the twelve tone examples hurt the authors intent very much, making this book barely useful for anyone wanting to write anything other than twelve tone music. As with so many other composition books, we're given the authors favorite musical examples, not ones familiar to students (at least not to me). We're given techniqes but not told when and where to use them. Maybe it was more appropriate to an earlier reader but even thats doubtful. Its hardly accessible anymore. I can't recommend this book to anyone except the twelve tonalists.

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.