Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century

Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century builds on the foundations of Music since the First World War (first published 1977, revised edition 1988). It updates and reshapes the original text and places it in the wider context of twentieth-century serious music before 1918 and after 1975, surveying the immense variety of technical developments in twentieth-century serious music. Sections of detailed analysis, with particular emphasis on such major figures as Stravinsky, Bartk, Messiaen, Tippett, and Ligeti, are framed by more concise sketches of a range of significant composers from Faur, to Wolfgang Rihm. Extensive music examples reinforce this technical focus.