Books about 20th/21st Century Composers

[Karl Henning]

The Rest Is Noise is indeed far from perfect, but the competition doesn't seem to be too stiff. 

A sound analysis

I definitely enjoyed it overall. I just read so many amazing things about it beforehand. As I said earlier, my hopes were so high that nothing Ross wrote would have satisfied them.

Even as the reviews — the many, many reviews — the uniformly effusive, perhaps a tad too-excessively enthusiastic reviews — kept rolling in back when the book was first released, I did feel a little sorry for Ross, as it seemed to me praise far too high for any book written by a mere mortal to live up to.  (But only a little sorry, as it seemed, too, that he would be set for fame and revenue for some considerable time.)

[petrarch]

For myself, I am far more interested in books that offer musical analysis as opposed to primarily biographical information.  While the biographical context can offer some insights into the music, I generally prefer to focus almost exclusively on the music and how it is put together rather than the composer's life.

Same here, though I have come to appreciate more and more how the biographical or other more personal aspects of the composer can form a more complete picture beyond just the music. It helps establish a sense of continuity through a composer's output and helps better understand the thinking behind the works and how it evolved.

[petrarch]

Electronic & Computer Music by Peter Manning : 1990s ~ present

This book covers primarily 1945-present, with its first chapter establishing the context with the beginnings of electric sound in the early 1900s.

[torut]

This book covers primarily 1945-present, with its first chapter establishing the context with the beginnings of electric sound in the early 1900s.

Thank you for pointing it out. I corrected the mistake. This book looks interesting.

[torut]

and a summary of books about individual composers mentioned here. (I also added Taruskin books in the other post.)

Stockhausen: Other Planets: The Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen by Robin Maconie (2005)
Ligeti: György Ligeti: Music of the Imagination by Richard Steinitz (2003)
Feldman: Give My Regards to Eight Street: Collected Writings of Morton Feldman edited by B.H. Friedman (2004)
Wolff: Christian Wolff by Michael Hicks and Chrisitan Asplund (2012)
Schoenberg: Schoenberg (Master Musicians Series) by Malcolm MacDonald (2008) 2nd edition
Schoenberg: Arnold Schoenberg's Journey by Allen Shawn (2002)
Stravinsky: Experiencing Stravinsky: A Listener's Companion by Robin Maconie (2013)
Stravinsky: Stravinsky's Late Music by Joseph N. Straus (2004)
Stravinsky: Stravinsky: A Creative Spring: Russia and France, 1882-1934 by Stephen Walsh (2002)
Stravinsky: Stravinsky: The Second Exile: France and America, 1934-1971 by Stephen Walsh (2008)
Stravinsky: Stravinsky: The Composer and His Works by Eric Walter White (1985) 2nd edition
Bartók: My Father by Peter Bartók (2002) (OOP? available from Bartók Records & Publications)

I am interested in the Stockhausen book (I have Stockhausen on Music by the same author (1989) and this book seems to cover later years), Feldman and maybe will start with one of Stravinsky books. Thank you!

[EDIT] corrected mistakes.

[EigenUser]

The Bartok isn't out of print -- it's just not quite as easy to find since it's published by Peter Bartok's own company "Bartok Records". I ordered it through the Bartok Records store on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/My-Father-Bk-Cloth-BARTOK/dp/0964196123/ref=aag_m_pw_dp?ie=UTF8&m=A3EF38FIHAT57M

[torut]

The Bartok isn't out of print -- it's just not quite as easy to find since it's published by Peter Bartok's own company "Bartok Records". I ordered it through the Bartok Records store on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/My-Father-Bk-Cloth-BARTOK/dp/0964196123/ref=aag_m_pw_dp?ie=UTF8&m=A3EF38FIHAT57M

Fixed it, thank you. This description looks interesting.

The origin of details of several works are described.

[torut]

As per Octave's suggestion, I added a list of books mentioned here to the 1st post.

[Octave]

One that moves into not-strictly-classical territory (as I guess does much other music in the period you're asking about) is this, probably essential if you are interested in not just ~traditional composition but also ~avant-garde jazz and the politics (active or passive) of separatism, not that this latter is the main occupation of the book. 

[asin]0226476960[/asin]
George Lewis: A POWER STRONGER THAN ITSELF - THE AACM AND AMERICAN EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC (2008)

Lewis was at UC San Diego for quite a while and is now at Columbia, and for years was teaching computers to improvise with humans.  Maybe still?  I have not kept up with his own music.  His faculty profile say he's an editor of "the forthcoming two-volume Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies", which looks like it might finally be coming out this year.  Here's the co-editor's Academia.edu page with some other relevant tidbits (Henry Flynt, Henry Cow, experimental music etc):
https://cornell.academia.edu/BenjaminPiekut

I am also curious if anyone knows this book, whose author is iic more from an art-history background:


Branden W. Joseph: BEYOND THE DREAM SYNDICATE - TONY CONRAD AND THE ARTS AFTER CAGE (Zone/M.I.T.)

Also Douglas Kahn's writings, perhaps also much more geared toward the interface of visual/performance arts and sound-art.  I still have not checked out his co-edited volume (anthology, rather?) SOURCE: MUSIC OF THE AVANT-GARDE 1966-1973, but it's supposed to be a lovely physical artifact and time-capsule.

[San Antone]

Those books look very interesting; thanks for posting them.

[Octave]

David Grubbs, most famous as an erstwhile-Chicago postrock guy, did his PhD on/around Cage, and once said that all of his own academic research work was worth maybe one footnote in one paper by Branden Joseph; that was his way of complimenting Joseph's diligence and comprehensiveness.  What small bits of the book I looked at once made me think it might not be from a "conservatory" perspective, though. 

[torut]

I like avant garde jazz. Thank you for introducing these books. These are mainly about USA avant-garde scene? I am also interested in European avant-garde jazz / free improvisations and their relation with contemporary composers.

[Octave]

I like avant garde jazz. Thank you for introducing these books. These are mainly about USA avant-garde scene? I am also interested in European avant-garde jazz / free improvisations and their relation with contemporary composers.

I don't know how much you like AMM and the musics that followed (that follow) in their wake, but their percussionist Eddie Prévost has a label, Matchless, who also publish books, mainly his own, under their "Copula" imprint.  They published John Tilbury's massive biography of Cornelius Cardew.  Here's the list of their books with descriptions/mail-order:
http://www.matchlessrecordings.com/books



John Tilbury: CORNELIUS CARDEW - A LIFE UNFINISHED

Tilbury is of course a well known interpreter of Morton Feldman's music.  (In fact, Matchless has released some DVD-audio discs of recent recordings of Feldman's music.) This biography and the CARDEW READER are the two books that seem most relevant to this thread.  Sorry to recommend books I have not yet read!  However, I have read two of Prévost's own books on improvisation and AMM as a laboratory for making improvisation a kind of composition, and I found them both interesting but very personal, if that is the word.

[San Antone]

Cardew is an important voice from the 20th century, IMO, almost on the level of John Cage.  However, I became less and less  interested in his work to the extent that he became more and more obsessed with using his work to articulated political philosophy (which was quite the opposite for Cage, whose only political message, if he had one, was an anarchic approach to freedom of the individual. This was the source of their falling out, mainly from Cardew's perspective, since Cage did not intentionally fall out with anyone). 

Still, one can hardly imagine experimental music, especially in UK, being what is has been without the influence of Cardew.

[torut]

I only have a recent AMM CD (Sounding Music, 2010, with Prevost, Tilbury, Butcher, Wolff and Kangiesser.) It is a strangely sounding music.
I have not heard Cardew's music yet. Thanks for the info of the books. (It is a huge volume: 1104 pages!) I just started reading Nyman's Experimental Music, and saw descriptions of Cardew & AMM, together with Cage, Wolff, Feldman, etc.

[ritter]

I received this book yesterday from amazon.fr:



I'm ususally not that keen on collected letters, but must admit this is a very pleasant read. Schaeffner was a distinguished ethnomusicologist and aestheticist, friendly with (among others) Stravinsky.

To read the young Boulez seeking advice from Schaeffner (30 years his senior), discussing extra-European instruments, tyring to get hold of tam-tams and gongs from the music department of the Torcadéro Museum (directed by Schaeffner) for performances of Le Marteau, and so on, is rather fun.

[torut]

I received this book yesterday from amazon.fr:



I'm ususally not that keen on collected letters, but must admit this is a very pleasant read. Schaeffner was a distinguished ethnomusicologist and aestheticist, friendly with (among others) Stravinsky.

To read the young Boulez seeking advice from Schaeffner (30 years his senior), discussing extra-European instruments, tyring to get hold of tam-tams and gongs from the music department of the Torcadéro Museum (directed by Schaeffner) for performances of Le Marteau, and so on, is rather fun.

Thank you for introducing the book. (Although I cannot read French. ) I read about letters exchanged between Boulez and Cage. At the beginning, they respected each other and showed great interest in the ideas of the other, but eventually they realized that what they were thinking were completely different.

[Karl Henning]

Thank you for introducing the book. (Although I cannot read French. ) I read about letters exchanged between Boulez and Cage. At the beginning, they respected each other and showed great interest in the ideas of the other, but eventually they realized that what they were thinking were completely different.

That is true;  although I do not see why thinking differently about music should be any obstacle to mutual respect.

[ritter]

That is true;  although I do not see why thinking differently about music should be any obstacle to mutual respect.

That Boulez-Cage correspondence is something I must seek out...

But you guys have me intrigued: does it end with Pierre and John calling each other names and referring to the other's mother in impolite ways? 

[torut]

That Boulez-Cage correspondence is something I must seek out...

But you guys have me intrigued: does it end with Pierre and John calling each other names and referring to the other's mother in impolite ways? 

Boulez called Cage a 'performing monkey' after the breakdown. I don't know exactly how Cage called Boulez, something like the face of an animal waiting for slaughter...?