Simple Composition

by Charles Wuorinen (composer)

Charles Wuorinen was described as a "maximalist", writing music that is luxuriant with events, lyrical and expressive, and strikingly dramatic. His works are characterized by powerful harmonies and elegant craftsmanship, offering at once a link to the music of the past and a vision of a rich musical future. 'Simple Composition', Wuorinen's classic text book, offers a glimpse inside the composer's studio and much practical advice to composer's searching for their own path. "In writing this book, I intended it primarily as a guide for composers in search of practical advice and models of how one might work compositionally. But since my presentation made extensive use of the twelve-tone system in its simplest and most easily describable form, the book was taken as a primer in that system [...] Perhaps today the book may offer a slightly different contribution than it did to offer a basic outline of a musical system and method that has proved immensely rich since its introduction by Schoenberg, as well as to provide a few practical tips." (Charles Wuorinen)

Genres: Music

999 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1994

Reviews

[Jeffrey Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good text for any composer to read. The first part of the book spends much time in philosophical musing. Also, the author's biases show through clearly. However, it is possible to learn quite a few useful things by reading Simple Composition even if you have no interest in Wuorinen's methods.

[James Carroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is nothing all that simple about Wuorinen's approach to teaching composition. This book gets into the gritty details of basic serial composition in a way that makes it accessible to event those of us still mired in tonality. I plan to work my way through this book multiple times.