Customer Reviews

Structural Functions in Music (Dover Books on Music)

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Very informative. Berry explores deep into the chore of musical functioning. An extremely useful resource for students and professionals alike. However, grammatically, Berry's unending use of extremely long run-on sentences, unnecessary wordiness and excessive punctuation take more than their toll on a reader. The structure of every last sentence in this book is so complicated that it is often difficult to understand what idea Berry is attempting to convey. There are at least four commas and often 1 or more colons and or semi colons in almost every single sentence. A good tool, but difficult beyond necessity to the point of hindrance.

Structural Functions in Music is an excellent source of ideas for any composer, performer, or student. Though not entirely an 'easy read', it is full of useful information. It covers several fundimental areas of music, and provides a very scientific and in depth look. As a composer, and a music lover in general, I have found a great deal of inspiration from this book. Though a bit dense for the average reader, I consider it a 'must have'.

As you might tell by the title, this is not a book for the music novice. But for the reader with a good grasp of theory, this book is a blessing in furthering the understanding of what happens at the deeper levels of music. True, Berry's sentences are long and involved, but worth wading through to get at the content. If you love music theory, you simply must have this book--it's an unbelievable amount of information packed into one small space. It completely changed my understanding of music theory and the way I think about music theory. Not a summer read, by any means, but buying this book was definitely a no-brainer!