Analytic Approaches to Twentieth-Century Music - Lester, Joel (New York Norton, 1989)
Designed to introduce the reader to a variety of analytic techniques applicable to music of our century, this valuable new book is written in a straightforward, clear style and includes abundant music examples, practical exercises, and reinforcing overviews.Refreshingly free of jargon and the abstruse mathematical equations that characterize so many works of a speculative nature, this insightful study utilizes masterworks of twentieth-century music as the bases for discussion and analysis.Analytic Approaches is organized into four units. The first focuses on aspects of musical structure other than pitch, such as rhythm, texture, timbre, form, and relationship of tonal music to the musics of our time. Units 2 and 3 deal with pitch structure: Unit 2 with pitch-class sets and Units 3 with serial music. Unit 4 contains a survey of music of the most recent generation.The author admits freely that the perception of a work of art is a personal matter. In this book, he does not pretend to teach "the" way to listen to or to analyze contemporary music. Rather, he seeks to lead the reader to more informed listening through an understanding of how musical materials are used achieve both sonic and expressive effects.
Keywords: 20th Century (1901-2000); Musical analysis