Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory - Hardcover

Straus, Joseph N.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0131898906 ISBN 13: 9780131898905

Publisher: Pearson, 2004

Synopsis

For undergraduate/graduate-level courses in Twentieth-Century Techniques, and Post-Tonal Theory and Analysis taken by music majors.

A primer–rather than a survey–this text offers exceptionally clear, simple explanations of basic theoretical concepts for the post-tonal music of the twentieth century. Emphasizing hands-on contact with the music–through playing, singing, listening, and analyzing–it provides six chapters on theory, each illustrated with musical examples and fully worked-out analyses, all drawn largely from the “classical” pre-war repertoire by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartok, Berg, and Webern.

 

"Straus takes a paced, methodical, logical approach to each topic. He introduces it in context and — perhaps most significantly of all — uses language that's so transparent that merely to follow his descriptions, explanations and illustrations carefully is to understand each aspect of the theory under consideration."  Mark Sealey, Classical.net

About this title

About the Author

Joseph Straus is Distinguished Professor of Music at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.  He taught for many years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Queens College (CUNY).  The author or editor of twelve books and numerous articles, mostly on topics in twentieth-century music, he is a former President of the Society for Music Theory.

From the Back Cover

Designed for a course in twenty-first-century techniques and analysis, this text offers a clear, comprehensive introduction to the basic concepts of post-tonal theory. Each concept is clearly explained and richly illustrated with examples from the musical literature. The text contains model analyses as well as carefully graduated exercises that involve playing, singing, composing, and analyzing.

The third edition stays abreast of recent theoretical developments by including discussions of transformational networks and graphs, contour theory, atonal voice leading, triadic post-tonality (including neotonality), inversional symmetry, and interval cycles. As a result, this text is not only a primer of basic concepts but also an introduction to the current state of post-tonal theory, with its rich array of theoretical concepts and analytical tools.

The third edition also features a wide range of composers and musical styles. Although the "classical" prewar repertoire of music by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartok, Webern, and Berg still comprises the musical core, theoretical concepts are now also illustrated with music by Adams, Babbitt, Berio, Boulez, Britten, Cage, Carter, Cowell, Crawford, Crumb, Debussy, Feldman, Glass, Gubaidulina, Ives, Ligeti, Messiaen, Musgrave, Reich, Ruggles, Sessions, Shostakovich, Stockhausen, Varese, Wolpe, Wuorinen, and Zwillich.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0131898906
• ISBN 13: 9780131898905
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 288