Resources
Books
† denotes books available in the NDSU Music Composition library.
Composition Texts
Alan Belkin. Musical Composition: Craft and Art. †
Reginald Smith Brindle. Musical Composition
Robert Carl. Music Composition in the 21st Century: A Practical Guide for the New Common Practice. †
Vincent D’Indy. Course in Musical Composition, vol. 1. †
Leon Dallin. Techniques of Twentieth Century Composition. †
Dennis DeSantis. Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers. †
Johann Joseph Fux. The Study of Counterpoint/Gradus Ad Parnassum. †
Paul Hindemith, Craft of Musical Composition, Books 1-3 †
Jonathan Middleton. Essentials for Composers–Creative Process by Design. †
Vincent Persichetti. Twentieth Century Harmony. †
Arnold Schoenberg. Fundamentals of Musical Composition. †
Jorge Variego. Composing with Constraints. †
Charles Wuorinen. Simple Composition. †
The Business of Composing
Richard Bellis. The Emerging Film Composer. †
Virgil Moorefield. The Producer as Composer. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010. †
Composing for Media
Winifred Phillips. A Composer's Guide to Game Music. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014. †
Jeff Rona. The Reel World: Scoring for Pictures, Television, and Video Games, 3rd ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022. †
Improvisatory and Aleatoric Music, Tunings
Kyle Gann. The Arithmetic of Listening: Tuning Theory & History for the Impractical Musician. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2019.
Pauline Oliveros. Deep Listening. †
R. Murray Schafer. The Soundscape. †
Orchestration
Samuel Adler. The Study of Orchestration, 4th Ed. † (3rd Ed. †)
Alfred Blatter. Instrumentation and Orchestration. †
Kent Kennan and Donald Grantham. The Technique of Orchestration.
Walter Piston. Orchestration. †
Gardner Read. Compendium of Modern Instrumental Techniques. †
Gardner Read. Modern Rhythmic Notation. †
Gardner Read. Pictographic Score Notation: A Compendium. †
Gardner Read. Style and Orchestration. †
Charles-Marie Widor. Manual of Practical Instrumentation. †
Historical Orchestration Texts:
Hector Berlioz and Richard Strauss: Treatise on Instrumentation.
Adam Carse. The History of Orchestration. †x3
Adam Carse. Musical Wind Instruments. †
Cecil Forsyth. Choral Orchestration.
Cecil Forsyth. Orchestration. †
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. Principles of Orchestration. †
Gardner Read. Thesaurus of Orchestral Devices. †
Curt Sachs. The History of Musical Instruments. †
Instrument-specific Books
Flute
Robert Dick, Tone Development through Extended Techniques.
Brandy Hudelson, The Art of Beatboxing.
Oboe
Libby Van Cleve, Oboe Unbound. †
Clarinet
Ronald L. Caravan, Preliminary Exercises & Etudes in Contemporary Techniques for Clarinet
Phillip Rehfeldt, New Directions for Clarinet.
Saxophone
Marcus Weiss, Techniques of Saxophone Playing. †
Bassoon
TBA
Horn
Douglas Hill, Extended Techniques for the Horn. †
Trumpet
Thomas Stevens, Contemporary Trumpet Studies.
Trombone
TBA
Euphonium
TBA
Tuba
TBA
Percussion
Samuel Z. Solomon, How to Write for Percussion: A Comprehensive Guide to Percussion Composition. †
Mick Berry & Jason Gianni, The Drummer's Bible. †
Strings
TBA
Piano
TBA
Organ
TBA
Musicianship and Entrepreneurship
Angela Myles Beeching. Beyond Talent †
Gerald Klickstein. The Musician’s Way †
David Baskerville and Tim Baskerville. Music Business Handbook and Career Guide 12th Edition. (11th Ed. †)
David Cutler. The Savvy Musician †
Mark Rabideau, Creating the Revolutionary Artist. †
Notation
Elaine Gould. Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation. London: Faber Music, 2011. †
Elaine Gould. Behind Bars: General Conventions.& London: Faber Music, 2023. †
Steven Powell. Music Engraving Today, 2nd Ed. New York: Brichtmark Music, 2007. †
Gardner Read. Modern Rhythmic Notation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978. †
Gardner Read. Music Notation: A Manual of Modern Practice. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1979. †
Howard Risatti. New Music Vocabulary. [Out of print and difficult to find, it lists a number of ways to notate various extended techniques] †
G. Schirmer/AMP: Manual of Style [The style manual from Schirmer, available as print-on-demand] †
Composer Autobiographies/Memoirs
John Adams. Hallelujah Junction. †
John Luther Adams. Silences so Deep †
Bruce Adolphe. Of Mozart, Parrots, and Cherry Blossoms in the Wind: A composer explores mysteries of the musical mind. New York: Limelight Editions, 1999. †
Bruce Adolphe. The Mind's Ear. †
Philip Glass. Words Without Music. †
Charles Ives. Essays before a Sonata. †
Alex Ross. The Rest is Noise. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007 †
Electronic Music
Mark Ballora. Digital Audio and Acoustics for the Creative Arts. †
Michael Clarke, Frederic Dufeu, and Peter Manning. Inside Computer Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. †
Frederick Bianchi and V.J. Manzo, eds. Environmental Sound Artists in their own words. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016†
Leigh Landy. Understanding the Art of Sound Organization. †
Curtis Roads. Composing Electronic Music. A New Aesthetic. †
Creativity (and other misc.)
Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman. A Perfect Mess. New York: Back Bay Books, 2007. †
Dan Ariely. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. New York: Harper Perennial, 2010. †
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Creativity: The psychology of discovery and invention. New York: Harper Perennial, 2013. †
Daniel Coyle. The Talent Code. New York: Bantam, 2009. †
Angela Duckworth. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. New York: Scribner, 2016. †
David Epstein. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. New York: Riverhead Books, 2019. †
Howard Gardner. Creating Minds. New York: Basic Books, 2011. †
Adam Grant, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move The World. New York; Viking, 2016. †
Robert Jourdain. Music, The Brain, and Ecstasy: How Music Captures our Imagination. New York: Harper Perennial, 2002. †
Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass R. Sunstein. Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment. New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2021. †
Daniel Kahneman. Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011. †
Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire. Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind. New York: TarcherPerigee, 2015. †
Stephen King. On Writing: A memoir of the craft. New York: Scribner, 2000. †
Anne Lamott. Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Anchor Books, 1994. †
John McPhee. Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017. †
Read Montague. Why Choose this Book† How we make decisions. New York: Dutton, 2006 †
Adam Savage. Every Tool's A Hammer: Life is What You Make It. New York: Atria, 2020 †
Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein. Nudge: The Final Edition. New York: Penguin, 2021. †
Twyla Tharp. The Creative Habit. New York, Simon & Schuster, 2003. †
Paul Tough. How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. Boston: Mariner Books, 2013. †
Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. The Art of Possibility. New York: Penguin, 2000. †