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William Russo

Jeffrey Ainis

Composing Music: A New Approach Reprinted edition

by William Russo (Author), Jeffrey Ainis (Author), David Stevenson (Author)

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Aimed at those who have some knowledge of music but not formal training in composition, this concise introduction to composing starts right in with a brief composition exercise, then proceeds step by step through a series of increasingly complex and challenging problems, gradually expanding the student's musical grammar.

"This is a wonderful book for anyone who is developing improvising skills or who would like a fun way to explore music."—Jim Stockford, Co-Evolution Quarterly

ISBN-10

9780226732169
ISBN-13

978-0226732169
Edition

Reprinted edition
Publisher

University of Chicago Press
Publication date

February 15, 1988
Language

English
Dimensions

11.01 x 8.93 x 0.77 inches
Print length

240 pages
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Aimed at those who have some knowledge of music but no formal training in composition, this concise introduction to composing music starts right in with a composition exercise using four notes, then proceeds through a series of increasingly complex and challenging problems, gradually expanding the student's musical grammar.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0226732169
Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; Reprinted edition (February 15, 1988)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Plastic Comb ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780226732169
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226732169
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 11.01 x 8.93 x 0.77 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,084,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #394 in Songwriting
- #484 in Music Composition (Books)
- #1,122 in Music Techniques (Books)

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4.4 69 ratings

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William Russo
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Jeffrey Ainis
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Jeffrey Ainis was born on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California, on a Saturday night. And his parents were living on Saturn (street) at the time. He is a writer, editor, and graphic designer, and the author, with composers William Russo and David Stevenson, of "Composing Music: A New Approach" (University of Chicago Press). He is also a co-author of "Introduction to World Music" (Kendall Hunt Publishing), a part of a world-music course taught at several colleges through Coast Learning Systems. A freelance writer, book editor, and book designer, he has written and reported on spirituality, film scoring, world music, and other topics. As a musician and composer he has performed world music/kirtan on three continents. He is a former editor and writer for the Hollywood Reporter, and has edited numerous nonfiction books and memoirs. He lives in Southern California with his wife (and child from another species).
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an outdated new approach

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2012

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This book was written and originally published in the '80s. There is a fraction of a fractal of a chance it might have been considered a new approach then, and that is only because it is so radically conservative. The author dismisses mid-twentieth century composers (pg. 179) on the account of them not conforming to what people want to hear. This is a recurring theme in this book. His pedagogy involves limiting controls to focus budding composers' minds on articulating emotions. However, he establishes ground rules that are never to be violated, as well as individual exercises' rules. For example, in the very first exercise, the reader must end on E (of the four possible notes in this exercise, E, G, A, and B), must play in 5/4, in every measures play three quarter notes followed by a half note, and we must occasionally repeat a measure. We are to use one flute. Sorry if it is controversial to say that these rules are too rigid to promote any individuality. Such a statement is unsurprising, regardless. The author describes the composer as a societal utility: "As this book suggests, I am concerned with maintaining good relations with the audience; I see the composer as a moral force, as an instructor, and as an essential contributor to the good life." (again, pg. 179) As righteous as he may have asserted himself, Russo allows his personal beliefs to interfere greatly with his teaching, as you will see if you read this book.

The title is misleading. A New Approach would be to embrace the avant-garde rather than reject it. He disregards the expansions of microtonal composers (uncontroversially an uncharted field in Western composition) like Lou Harrison and Harry Partch. He supports using popular music as a source but only dated styles like folk, blues, ragtime and jazz. Apparently it is impossible to see potential in rock, hip-hop, and don't even get me started on electronic. The contemporary, resourceful, surviving musician today must embrace synthesis and software if she is to hear her compositions. We need a truly new approach. I was disappointed to see this is not one.

15 people found this helpful

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Eric Stark

A Good Refresher

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2011

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I had studied classical composition in college, and I was looking for a refresher. This book has fit that purpose very well. It is practical right from the start and takes a gradual but steady path from the basics up through more advanced topics. Others have remarked that it takes a minimalist approach, but that is how I recall learning this material initially. Like learning a language, you typically study the basic elements of vocabulary and sentence structure in isolation. The artist, equipped with the new knowledge, then has more freedom to apply the various aspects however they see fit.

Once you know basic theory (or if you are looking for a refresher course), this is a solid book on both classical and universal music composition.

12 people found this helpful

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Frank K. Mitchell

Composition for beginners

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2012

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This book seems well laid out, but there are a lot of unstated things about what might make a "good" composition that mean one needs to have a good composition teacher to allow you to be most productive with the book. I have found the clarity and simplicity to be very helpful so far, and when I compare and contrast it with Kostka and Payne, it is less theoretical but covers the same subjects in different language; and when compared with "Everything you need to know about..." it is less breezy and more rigorous in development. So it's a help - with a good teacher to help use it. By the way, the book was labeled as Used but in good condition, and it was absolutely pristine.

5 people found this helpful

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Rusty B

Practical and stimulating

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2019

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This book dives right into the act of composing, which is ideal for someone with neurotic tendencies like myself. I was surprised to find the list of rules (i.e. constraints) at the beginning, but their implementation mercifully pares down the choices available at any given moment. (Further restrictions in the exercises themselves serve the same purpose.) I'm excited to do the work and glad to have a launching point into the world of composition.

5 people found this helpful

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Bassman 17

Excellent Course to Learn About Music Composition; Practical and Informative

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2019

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Yes, this was assigned for a course of Music Composition at the local junior college, but I find there's a reason the professor selected it! The author gets your right into working with scales, notes, and scores.

4 people found this helpful

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Tabby W.

Needs each lesson on one page.

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book is excellent for teaching composing, except that the examples are always on one page, and you have to flip over to get to where you write your composition. They should be on the same page for ease of use.

3 people found this helpful

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Uncle George

Good Method for Beginning Composers

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2013

Verified Purchase

I teach music composition and use exercises from this book as part of my curriculum. I have found the exercises to be effective in a classroom situation for teaching composition techniques to music students in the lower division of college.

16 people found this helpful

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Ben Franklin

Dive Right In!

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2023

If you have music theory down, Russo's book will take you right into writing. The exercises are great - they start you out at a very elementary level and you work your way up. This is a great method for someone just staring out - and you stay encouraged because you are actually writing melodies / songs from the start. The book takes you right through to writing more complex pieces.

I recommend getting the Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory - unless you have all that down pat - as a supplement to the Russo's book.

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John Ferngrove

Wow, it's really working

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 12, 2010

Verified Purchase

Opportunities for formal musical education passed me by for various reasons in my schooldays. Despite that I've heard music in my head since I was a kid, and the itch to compose has just got stronger as the years have passed. A few years back I got a digital music set up which has gone someway towards satisfying that itch, but I've not been able to avoid feeling a bit of a fraud, because I know that real composers do it with pencil and paper. From time to time I've made efforts to study harmony and to train my inner ear. However, with no real structure to my efforts, I've just ended up with a big heap of scruffy manuscript paper, a vague sense of defeat, and a barely perceptible rate of progress.

I bought this book a year or so ago, briefly fiddled with the opening exercises, and then let it get lost in the scruffy heap. However, a recent email from an Amazon customer regarding one of my reviews enquired as to whether I knew any books that might help in learning composition. That got me thinking and I suddenly remembered this book, which I dug from the heap for another go. And now, after about a fortnight of daily, sustained effort, I can report that it's really working. Things I have been trying to do for years are starting to happen with a growing sense of fluency.

I think the key to this book's success is that it trains your inner ear while it's teaching you to write, and it starts from such a simple place, the C major scale. It builds on this in such gradual increments that development takes place with you scarcely realising it is happening. There is an emphasis on simplicity and on constraints to be used, on the notes, chords, rhythms and time values, and there is a constant focus on expressing what you want to say whilst submitting to those constraints. It's now readily apparent that the main reason for my earlier failures was quite simply attempting to run before I could walk.

I'm now able to look at notes on paper and hear the music they represent in my head. It's still very simple music, but it's happening all the same, and improving day by day. When I put the book down and try to compose freely, the speed and confidence with which I write, and the duration of what I can hold in memory, has increased substantially from just a week or so ago. And when I write, I am hearing as I write it, and I can tap out the chords and melodies I am hearing on the piano with less and less fumbling. I can only wish I had encountered this book many years ago.

40 people found this helpful

M. Merino

Not the right book for me

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 24, 2012

Verified Purchase

I bought this book because of the good reviews I read. Unfortunately, I must say I am quite dissapointed with it for several important reasons:

1) The explanations on each topic are very short. In most cases, important concepts are explained in one or two sentences, when it would be necessary one or two pages to do so (I had to consult other books to understand what the author was talking about). In this sense, the book was of little help to gain new knowledge of compositional techniques. Moreover, the style of his writing is very distant and unfriendly -it doesn't motivate or create empathy between the reader and the author.

2) The music examples in the book sound -to me- quite awfull in general. The main reason is because of the scales "imposed" by the author: he restricts the compositions to be made by the reader to -mainly- the Dorian, Phrygian and Pentatonic scales, which are not -in my opinion- the ideal scales to work with when starting to learn composition techniques. All this was quite demotivating for me and didn't encourage new compositional ideas.

3) The beggining of the book is very basic, but a few chapters later, the difficulty rises exponentially. So the book is not clearly for beginners, and an experienced composer will find the first few chapters useless.

After reaching the middle of the book, I realized why I didn't like the music examples and why the author used such unfrequent scales as the Phrygian scale: the author has a clear bias towards Minimalistic music (there are a few chapters dedicated just to this kind of music) and the whole book is written in a minimalistic style (is this what "A New Approach" means?). And this, finally, is the main reason why I didn't like the book: I was looking for a book that would teach me compositional techniques based on CLASSICAL HARMONY, and would explain each concept IN DETAIL, with PLEASING sounding musical examples based on CLASSICAL functional harmony. This is not so in this book.

In conclusion, if you like Minimalistic music and have a good backgroung in Harmony and Composition, you might find this book useful. If you are looking for in depth and clear explanations of compositional techniques, based on classicai harmony, I don't recommend this book at all.

23 people found this helpful

A.

Composing Music

Reviewed in Canada on July 3, 2011

Verified Purchase

It's just what I was looking for! The exercises dive you straight into composing music right away without discussing music theory too deeply. It uses a straightforward approach by applying theory rather than studying the definitions alone. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn how to compose music.

One person found this helpful

mr pj turner

Good for basic composition

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 4, 2013

Verified Purchase

Good but doesnt cover more on songwriting/lyrics,and doesnt go into orchestration,otherwise a good if somewhat oversimplified approach to the subject

Gerard Harrison

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 31, 2014

Verified Purchase

Excellent!

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