An important characteristic of contemporary art music has been the use of conventional instruments in unconventional ways, achieving effects undreamed of or thought impossible in the early twentieth century. This compendium codifies these techniques, explains their production and effects, cites representative scores, and provides numerous example from an international selection of composers. Part One considers techniques and procedures that apply to all instruments; Part Two takes up idiomatic techniques with specific instruments in all orchestral categories. This monumental survey is essential for any music library or serious musician.
An important characteristic of contemporary art music has been the use of conventional instruments in unconventional ways, achieving effects undreamed of or thought impossible in the early twentieth century. Yet many of these techniques remain poorly understood with respect to both the physical procedures involved and the results in sound output. This compendium codifies these techniques, explains their production in terms of idiomatic peculiarity and limitations, and cites representative scores in which the new devices form an integral part of the composer's sonoric concepts. Citations and numerous printed examples are taken from an international selection of works by the most advanced and significant composers. Part One considers techniques and procedures that, with only slight modification, apply to all instruments: extended ranges, muting, glissandi, harmonics, percussive effects, microtones, amplification, and extramusical devices. Part Two is devoted to idiomatic techniques with specific instruments in the categories of woodwinds and brasses, percussion, harp and other plucked instruments, keyboard instruments, and strings. While demonstrating recent and radical innovations, references are made to historical beginnings of such devices in our classical music heritage.
An earlier version of this volume, Contemporary Instrumental Techniques (1976), was widely acclaimed by musicians and educators, recognized as a significant achievement in cataloging and organization and as an invaluable reference tool. Now extensively expanded, with additional techniques, new and revised explanations, and hundreds of recent citations and examples, this monumental survey is essential for any music library or serious musician. An indispensable guide for composers and orchestrators, it will also be valuable as a sourcebook for performers and teachers and as a textbook for courses in composition.
About the Author: GARDNER READ, a noted American composer and Professor of Music Emeritus at Boston University. His books include Thesaurus of Orchestral Devices, Music Notation: A Manual of Modern Practice, Contemporary Instrumental Techniques, Modern Rhythmic Notation, Style and Orchestration Source Book of Proposed Music Notation Reforms (Greenwood Press, 1987), and Twentieth-Century Microtonal Notation (Greenwood Press, 1990).
