13 Books for Composers 

This is just a sampling of some of the hard-copy books I had lying around my bookshelf that I've used over the years. I would be very curious to hear what kinds of resources you would add to this list! ✨After many requests, I’m finally offering a way for you to receive FEEDBACK directly from me on your work. Click in the link in the description to learn more.

damn you really got that doctorate

All great recommendations. Another great book is "Techniques of the Contemporary Composer" by David Cope. It's great in that there are a ton of assignments at the end of each chapter with enough limitations so that you don't feel overwhelmed by the immensity of potential decisions otherwise. Also, "Composing with Constraints" by Jorge Variego is quite good when dealing with lack of motivation or "writer's block."

That Douglas Hill book on the French horn is fantastic. I found Vincent Persichetti's "Twentieth-Century Harmony" very eye-opening, and crucial to my developing my own approach to harmony. Would highly recommend it.

and for Arab music probably would go with "Inside Arabic Music" by Johnny Farraj and Sami Abu Shumays (although I haven't read it much yet)

Thank you for this video Saad!! Really useful

glad you finally made a book video! I think I remember asking for it :)

A good resource for music engraving is Elaine Gould's "Behind Bars", published by Faber Music, for which she works. Came out 10 years ago and is probably due for a second edition. Much more comprehensive than prior music notation books. Expensive at about $100 but worth it if you want to learn proper notation.

Love this. So thorough and an incredible resource! Love the Briggs treatise as well.

I started studying music pretty seriously only about one year ago. I engaged in Schoenberg's Harmonielehre and it's been a fantastic journey. Schoenberg takes us through a journey of his insights into how the music "rules" developed throughout the centuries into the common practice of harmony, which gave me a strong feeling of knowing what I was doing while writing chord progressions. I studied it to exhaustion through almost half the book and decided to give a pause before diving into modulation. The reason for that is because I felt I knew a lot already (really knowing how to write 4-part harmony on major and minor modes is something that most in the music industry out there probably have no clue at all - which is fine accordingly to what each one wants with music), but somethings were missing (maybe they'll be addressed later in the book, but I had to connect some dots). For instance: OK, I can write smooth and compelling chord progressions, but what are the implications of writing a specific chord (according to its function) on a specific beat of a specific meter? At the same time I was studying Schoenberg's Harmonielehre, I also started to study his book on counterpoint. I also checked Alan Belkin's and Jacob Gran's RU-vid channels (which I recommend) to have more info on the subject. I did a lot of exercises on the 2-part first species counterpoint and really felt I was grasping it, but I decided to pause before moving to the second species. Why? While studying counterpoint I got a lot of insights on melody writing (there's much more science there than first meets the eye), and I felt a need to go further on the subject. Until now I've found immensely valuable information about it in Walter Piston's Counterpoint, and Alan Belkin's Music Composition: Art and Craft, but the book that I'm digging into now on that matter is Nicholas Baragwanath's The Solfeggio Tradition. But, as I always loved Renaissance music I turned my attention to modal counterpoint, which I'm learning from two books at the same time: Thomas Benjamin's The Craft of Modal Counterpoint, and Peter Schubert's Modal Counterpoint. The reason why is that the authors address how it's a perfect start for learning the overall counterpoint since Baroque's polyphony will build itself upon the tradition. (I'm very interested in having good control over every aspect of a musical piece, then I'm giving special attention to pitch hierarchy and how pitches of a melody behave differently depending on where it's placed on music's pulse). A book that has been great in putting together all the pieces is William Caplin's Analyzing Classical Form. The book deals with all those mentioned aspects regarding melody, harmony, and meter. So right at the start of the book, the author categorizes harmonic progressions into three different types - prolongational, sequential, and cadential. So, one thing is knowing how to voice lead a harmonic progression in four-part writing, another thing is knowing where to place each harmony depending on what you want. He goes into deep detail on melody as well, relating melodic phrases to harmony and rhythm. But I think the great value of this book is that gives the tools for the composer to write big lengthy forms, which can be daunting with no prior study. I'm also studying Job Izjerman's Harmony, Counterpoint, Partimento: A New Method Inspired By Old Masters. The XXI century has witnessed the revival of partimento through the works of Guido Sanguinetti, Rosa Cafiero, Robert Gjerdingen, Peter van Tour, and Job Izjerman. I've found Partimento very fun to study, and its knowledge builds upon harmony and counterpoint hand-in-hand, so we don't need to learn harmony in one place, counterpoint in another, and then try to figure out how to mix things and see what happens. I'm waiting for Amazon to deliver Richard Cohn's Audacious Euphony, and Grosvenor Cooper & Leonard B. Meyer's The Rythmic Structure Of Music. As soon as I have them in hand I will look for an opportunity to share my impressions. One subject that I'm really interested in is chromatism, but all those works will properly deal with them. There is a list of books I believe are worth a look at: Arnold Schoenberg - Harmoniehlere (Theory of Harmony) Alan Belkin - Music Composition: Art and Craft Nicholas Baragwanath - The Solfeggio Tradition Thomas Benjamin - The Craft of Modal Counterpoint Peter Schubert - Modal Counterpoint William Caplin - Analyzing Classical Form Job Izjerman - Harmony, Counterpoint, Partimento: A New Method Inspired By Old Masters W.A. Mathieu - Harmonic Experience David Huron - Sweet Expectation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation David Berkman - The Jazz Harmony Book Mark Levine - The Jazz Piano Book

Wonderful video. Thank you!

Big Thanks!!! Great video! 😊 I have to get few of these books!!

Amazing video thank you very much !

I have Schönberg's Harmonielehre sitting on my shelf, hoping to read it fully one day. The stuff I read in it so far is really cool. I also like Daniel's Kontrapunkt.

Thanks a lot for your very suggestion !

Very useful! Thanks. And it broke back some memories--when I saw the cover of Rhythmic Training! I remember using that book as an undergrad in the mid 1970s!

Great video as always :)) Can you please recommend one on advanced techniques for the strings 🙏🏼

A fantastic little resource is Nicolas Slonimsky Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns. Sometimes you just need a *thing* and this has helped me loads

very helpful❤❤❤

Thanks for this great video..I’m wanting to start composing but I’m unsure what my influences are at the moment and what skills to develop to create a relevant piece of music. Something that I really liked in your video is using instrument manuals as reference - the idea that you don’t actually have to have a detailed knowledge beforehand..I’ve been reading Stravinsky’s Poetics of Music.. he says his starting point for writing a new piece is always to be very clear what he doesn’t want in the music and not to worry so much about what he’s actually going to write (I guess a specific commission helps)..he also talks about the importance of dogma - having something you really believe in..I find this interesting as he’s a composer whose music changed quite radically throughout his life..I personally found reading books by John Cage fascinating when I was younger…he opens you up to thinking about sound/no sound in a really fresh way..being empty of the past and allowing the create process to come out of life..at the moment that doesn’t help me thinking about “what is the actual material I want to use to create a piece of music I havn’t heard yet?”

I used Tonal Harmony in college. My professor made a modification to the chord progression chart (adding vi to V).

Can you make a video that focuses more on books about fundamentals before the 20th cenutry?

Thank you so much. I am applying for a composition degree now. I know more about what to do now.

The Tonal Harmony books are great

Hi Saad, I really like your channel. Please keep it up! Now, I would like to ask you about Jazz harmony. It is perfectly fine if you say it is not your thing, but still, I would love to hear your take on it. Especially if you have any recommendations for jazz harmony books. It seems to me that jazz harmony is considered a parallel world by classically trained composers and teachers. Even the vocabulary seems to be different. I would understand that historically the jazz genre has a distinct roots but going forward there will be more and more musicians and composers that do not want to live in parallel worlds. Is this something you are thinking about? Is a jazz harmony something you study and want to take inspiration from as well?

"Music in the Galant Style (2007)" and "Harmony, Counterpoint, Partimento (2018)"

That book with the Arabic rhythms looks fascinating. I was surprised Iannis Xenakis' Formalised Music didn't get a mention in regard to 20th century treatises, it is a treasure for the composer (provided that they are familiar with the mathematics, that is!).

Saad is there a particular book or treatise that you recommend about polytonality???...perhaps a few instructive scores to check out?, or is it covered well in one of the other books you mentioned?

Is Fux’s Study of Counterpoint still in use? Also are you familiar with (and would recommend) Harmony and Voice Leading by Edward Aldwell?

Fundamentals of music composition by Schoenberg is incredible. And know that it is about tonal music, not atonal.

Other than reading these texts, are there any exercises you would recommend doing to get better at applying the theory and write more creative/colourful harmonies and melodies in composition? I find I gravitate too much towards very conventional chords. Thank you for all these resources!

Yes, Tonal Harmony is indeed controversial. Seems people either love it or hate it. As my very first theory textbook, I'm in the camp that hates it haha. My main issue with it is how dry and dense the writing is. I found I constantly had to google to figure out what they meant, it has a "software manual written by the engineers" kind of vibe for me. Shortly after I found a book called Tonal Harmony in Concept and Practice by Allen Forte and while reviewing the contents they cover basically all the same topics, for whatever reason Forte's book was like a veil had been lifted for me - the writing is more terse and approachable yet clear, and he includes tons of exercises at the keyboard + sight-singing along the way. Sadly no longer in print but it's a great book!

Would you be able to recommend any books that cover the compositional process/method itself, such as Schoenberg's Fundamentals of Musical Composition?

In the category of "extended techniques," do you have a recommendation for the violin and the bass guitar?

THAT EDITION OF MUSIC THEORY BY KOSTKA IS IN MY SCHOOLS LIBRARY 😭😭💖💖💖

nice!

i think Kyle Gann's book "Arithmetic of Listening" is great for microtonality

id love to know what your thoughts are on persichettis book, twenty century harmony, since i was thinking about buying a copy

I haven't read Tonal Harmony in over 10 years, and I'm not really aware of the discourse around it, but I hold a grudge against it because it misled me to thinking that certain chords are supposed to go to certain other chords through their chord flow chart. I haven't yet found a book that I would recommend to every beginner though, and it does handle a lot of basics very well. Out of the books I know, I'd probably suggest Roig-Francoli's Harmony in Context as an alternative.

Cool, Don't forget that rhythm is the structure of music, "the book of movements" has 14 volumes of rhythmic movement patterns! for all musicians

Omg, I didn't know that Dandelot should sing with melody. We use it for only cleff reading

question Why kurt stone's book over Elaine Gould's behind bars? Unless you have that too but only in digital form

Dear Sir, would you address in a youtube video a scenario where a composer abandons real world representation and reluctantly embraces synthetics due to the lack of audience, musicians, interest… Which digital programs would one be directed toward if the composer does embrace microtones and extended techniques when one only has Finale and a Mac Air? Respectfully, Guerino

What is your primary instrument?

Thanks Saad! I'm not sure how relevant the book, Contemporary Harmony - Romanticism through the Twelve-Tone Row, by Ludmilia Ulehla, still is, to readers today, but it really helped broaden my horizons as a young music student in the 1990's. It helped me fill a gap between what I had learned in music theory and what I was hearing in Jazz and other styles of music at the time.

Why do you think the Tonal Harmony book by Kostka is controversial?

Can anyone comment on _Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide To Music Notation_ by Elaine Gould (ISBN-10: 0571514561; ISBN-13: 9780571514564)? Who or what level is it aimed at?

I have the first edition of Adlers book. It's crap. I bought and studied it thoroughly and wrote in the margins all the sloppy mistakes and downright incorrect information. Then when I took a course in orchestration, the instructor assigned this book for us. I took my copy to him and showed him that it was an inept work. The following week he told me that I was exactly right: the book was crap. I don't know if Adler improved it, but you'll be better off using the old standby Orchestration texts. I like the Kent Kennan and Donald Granham book a lot. I also got all the U of California Press's contemporary instrument series.

Interesting the fact that these books are NOT Composition methods in terms of “How to” they are actually just Books of theory,or works from others composers. Makes me think that at the end of the they the best way to learn composition is just paraphrase in the sheet the work or musical concept of others🤔

No counterpoint? I guess I should be thankful.

I love the iconic Aldwell & Schachter's Harmony and Voice Leading (5th edition). It can be quite technical sometimes but it's incredibly complete. One can extract from it very interesting ideas that transcend mere practical difficulties. I only miss one thing: a book that focuses on the "why" that lies behind every concept of music theory. The Aldwell & Schachter talks about it from time to time and when it does it's very brief. It's not the purpose of the book, it's not a complaint about the book. But I really miss that aspect. I think it's the elephant in the room. It's the most important thing and hardly nobody talks about it. Edit: If anyone has any book recommendations, it will be greatly appreciated!

Dandelot is not to sing, just to read faster an faster... thanks

So many books, so few composers.. Did Mozart read any of them?

Ear Training 😢

...and no book will help talentless one

"Tonal harmony" ---- yes, very contraversial. Why not Schoenberg's Theory on Harmony, or Hindemith's Traditional Harmony (book 1) and Advance Harmony (book 2). I also recommend Arensky's book too. Those familiar with Russian school will use (quite conventionally) Sporvov.... (something like that, i cannot recall those cyric language)