Musical Composition: Craft and Art

This is a great comprehensive book that deals with the traditional subjects taught in music composition in an artful and entertaining way. There are many books that aim to teach music composition but fail at execution. It is simple, to the point, and straightforward. As an undergraduate studying music composition, I have found this book to be extremely helpful as a supplement to my regular theory and composition courses. Must read!!

Each chapter can be read on their own and the book does a great job of making sense of things such as sonata form, phrasing, and motif/motif development.

A lot of people have been recommending this as a replacement for Schoenberg's "Fundamentals of Musical Composition", but, I have both and I can say this is clearly not the case. This book is best used as a supplement to that book-- Mr. Belkin, instead of really going in depth to the nuts and bolt of what each form presented sounds like and progresses, provides a few musical examples and allows you to essentially abstract from your mind generally how each form works. Schoenberg does not do this; he explains everything very clearly with clear wording instead of letting the examples speak for themselves. Of course, Schoenberg provides a lot of examples too, but they are all elaborations on the basic skeleton he lays out at the beginning of the chapter in clear wording. One would best, therefore, read through the Schoenberg chapter, then switch to the Belkin chapter, as Mr. Belkin provides many much clearer examples for how each form can be stretched and shrunk and played with in general. More on that later.In theory, Mr. Belkin's book contains more "forms" than Mr. Schoenberg's, but Mr. Belkin does not go sufficiently in depth, again, affirming the main idea before expanding to "what can we do with this."For the most immediately offending example, Mr. Belkin mentions in passing in his section on ternary form how minuets are frequently in ternary form paired with a trio. He does not go into any more specifics about characteristics of the minute and trio or the evolution to the scherzo as Schoenberg does. Belkin's book has one huge leg up on Schoenberg's book and that is that Belkin covers binary form and how to properly write a piece in binary form. This could prepare a reader to compose an individual piece in binary form, or a movement in a larger work, or a number of movements in a baroque dance suite (though I would supplement the last with videos by Musica Universalis on YouTube.)Furthermore, Mr. Belkin's book does not go sufficiently in depth on what Schoenberg refers to as "motive-forms," which are essentially the building block of phrases. He instead provided a vague answer, because it's more "style-neutral." In his chapter on phrases, he does elaborate more on "less stable structures" of phrasing, which, Arnold Schoenberg does as well, but honestly, Belkin's book does a better job of adding on top of that basic frame that Schoenberg lays out.Ultimately the one thing that makes this book such an amazing complement (not replacement!) for the Schoenberg text is that it goes quite in depth about more general concepts instead of the nitty-gritty of each form.So, to sum it up nicely:Schoenberg's book will teach you form. It is the book you need for that. Belkin's book will open your mind after reading the Schoenberg chapter and teach you HOW to compose artistically using those forms.Thus, I can strongly recommend this book, but I will say, it should be used as a supplement instead of a replacement for a more fundamental knowledge of forms.

Book came in with no damage. This is a great book for beginners in writing, but not suitable for someone who never learned music theory. So I guess I'd say it’s an intermediate level book. I enjoyed reading it! I’d highly recommend it.

This book brings some very interesting concepts that I couldn't find anywhere else and are now are invaluable to the way I compose.The writing is a bit boring at times, and the book could benefit from more and better recorded examples, but the content provided makes up for these minor issues!

This is such a great introduction to the art and craft of composition. It makes sense to take the classics and see how those composers used concepts and frameworks to create emotionally reaching music. Super insightful.

Outstanding! Clear, fresh, excellent writing, and truly useful. What a pleasure to read and work with. This one goes on the “top ten” shelf in my music studio.

Alan amazes me with his simple, straight-forward approach. He brings wonderful value in a "style neutral" format, so the reader can clearly understand the "what", and more importantly the "why", in the principles and methods used by great composers.In conjunction with his online videos and other pdf resources, Alan has really helped me fall in love with music that I used to perceive as plain and boring, and has enabled me to courageously start creating music that is much more rich and fulfilling.Like I said, worth every penny!

Llego en tiempo y forma. Es un muy buen libro par estudiar composición, la edición es en inglés y los colores son muy estéticos. A pesar de ser un muy buen libro no es para principiantes se requieren estudios previos en armonía tonal y contrapunto. 100% recomendado.

It took a bit longer than expected to deliver, but finally it has arrived. The seller was responsive, the item was well packaged and in good condition.

Belkin's strong emphasis on technique teaches how to compose. I've adopted much of his advice in my own work and teaching. Highly recommend

Ainda não o li todo, mas posso dizer que estou muito empolgado com o livro.

The reason I very much like this book is because it provides pretty much a blue-print of how to compose in a methodical way. Alan takes the budding composer through the craft of composition towards its art. Rather than composing in a vacuum he provides examples from the masters (as well as his own) and indicates why they 'work'. I strongly recommend that readers do the exercises, for this is the best way to learn. I am fortunate that Alan himself listens to my efforts and provides constructive feedback and tips for improvement.I recommend this book unreservedly.