Analytic Approaches to Twentieth-Century Music

Abstract

Refreshingly free of jargon and abstruse mathematical equations that characterize so many works of a speculative nature, this insightful study utilizes masterworks of twentieth-century music as bases for discussion and analysis. Analytic Approaches is organized into four units. The first focuses on aspects of musical structure other than pitch, such as rhythm, texture, timbre, form, and relationship of tonal music to musics of our time. Units 2 and 3 deal with pitch structure: Unit 2 with pitch-class sets and Units 3 with serial music. Unit 4 contains a survey of music of most recent generation. The author admits freely that perception of a work of art is a personal matter. In this book, he does not pretend to teach the way to listen to or to analyze contemporary music. Rather, he seeks to lead reader to more informed listening through an understanding of how musical materials are used achieve both sonic and expressive effects.