Music Book Review – Music and Form
Would you like to study up on the forms and structures of music? Music after all is both an art and a science. It’s not nearly as simple as it appears to the listeners, as he goes about his listening pleasure. Perhaps this topic interests you as much as is does me.
If so, then I’d certainly be willing to recommend an extremely interesting and informative book to you. One that has taught me much more than I could have ever believed. It is very comprehensive, the book is:
“Form in Music – An examination of Traditional Techniques of Musical Structure and Their Application in Historical and Contemporary Styles” by Wallace Berry Professor of Music University of Michigan; Prentice Hall Incorporated Publishers; Englewood Cliffs, NJ; 1966. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number is; 66-12872.
“What is Form in Music? It is the product of intellectual control over the musical ideas which bring composition into existence.” Says the author and that is what this book is about, and it is written in a text book like fashion. You will learn about Binary form, and the historical famous musicians that have best used it. You will learn about the smallest of music structure units.
There are chapters on simple ternary, compound ternary, rondo, sonata, ostinato and the variations. By the end of this book you will have learned all about the structure of music and understand what it takes to use this knowledge to compose, tweak, modify, while knowing what will work in advance, and why.
By: Lance Winslow