Product Description

How to Write for PERCUSSION is a comprehensive text that clearly explains and simplifies all issues that percussionists and composers face with respect to each other. Written from a percussionist's perspective, it examines the behind-the-scenes processes to uncover all the tools the composer needs to comfortably create innovative and skilled percussion composition.

If you are a composer or arranger and have ever had a question about percussion writing, How to Write for PERCUSSION is the definitive source. Whether you have years of percussion writing experience or no idea how to even approach it, this book will give you hundreds of great new ideas and will show you exactly how to realize them in your music.

There are nine chapters. The first four consider issues that apply to all percussion.

1. General Logistics 2. General Notation 3. Beaters 4. Tone Color

1. General Logistics explores issues of movement, instrument choice, instrument setup, concert production, and sound production. These are the often overlooked concerns which significantly influence the success of the composition.

2. General Notation details the key notational concepts for percussion writing, including guidelines for how to create parts and scores, how to set up a notational system for multi-percussion setups, and how to deal with articulation, phrasing, note length, and special effects.

3. Beaters describes each beater, its specific uses, special effects, and issues of changing beaters within a piece.

4. Tone Color discusses the physical factors that can be used to manipulate timbre on all percussion instruments.

The following five chapters discuss specific types of instruments.

5. Drums 6. Keyboard Percussion 7. Metal 8. Unpitched Wood 9. Miscellaneous Instruments

Drums, Keyboard Percussion, Metal, and Wood deal with instruments that are struck. Miscellaneous Instruments deals with instruments that are scraped, cranked, shaken, and blown through, as well as some struck instruments that do not fit into the other categories.

The five appendices expand and reinforce the concepts detailed in the rest of the book.

A. Sample Setups B. Scores with Comments C. Beaters D. Dynamics E. Suggested Works

A. Sample Setups is a collection of instrument lists with their corresponding setup diagrams and instrument keys.

B. Scores with Comments presents excerpts from real scores with comments that elaborate upon important logistcal and notational issues.

C. Beaters charts the appropriateness of various beaters on various instruments.

D. Dynamics charts the relative dynamics of various instruments struck with various beaters.

E. Suggested Works is an annotated list of works that use percussion well.

With hundreds of musical examples, diagrams, charts, photos, and pages of text, there are few questions this book will not answer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #452454 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Samuel Adler, Professor Emeritus, Eastman School of Music, Composition Faculty, Juilliard School, Author, The Study of Orchestration
"A true contribution to the literature of orchestration."

Jeffrey Milarsky, Percussionist, Conductor, Professor in Music, Columbia University
"A must for all composers, conductors and instrumentalists. By far the most absorbing and demanding book on percussion writing."

Steven Mackey, Composer, Guitarist, Professor of Music, Princeton University
"It will be required reading in my classes and a fixture on my desk."

Customer Reviews

A Masterpiece
This book was so incredible! Not only did it teach the fundamentals of percussive writing, it also explored contemporary techniques and how to write for them too. It's almost like a performance and writing guide, perfect for a composer!

Failed to live up to it's title
This book isn't what I expected at all; however, I don't think the failure lies with poor expectations. The title of this book is "How to Write for Percussion: A Comprehensive Guide to Percussion Composition" so I expected a book on percussion composition. But get this: on page 3 the author writes, "The author is not a composer; therefore, little instruction regarding the compositional use of percussion in the context of an ensemble is included." In a "comprehensive guide to percussion composition" I expected to learn about syncopoation, swing, time signatures, using percussion to draw attention to a passage, to build and resolve tension, fills, flam, downbeat, etc. Instead its basically about percussion notation and setup and a catalog of instruments and various tips, like "rimshot rolls is an unreasonable request" and "A standard triangle roll is executed with one hand. The player moves the beater rapidly back and forth between two sides." Useful for some people i'm sure, but maybe a better title would be "A Percussion Composer's Handbook" as it assumes you are already a composer.

Well done
I should think this would be particularly useful for film, TV, and other media composers, as the standard work by Emil Richards is terribly out of date. Also, Solomon's book is far more detailed than Richards' was, and more practical all around. It would be useful if there were a web site connected with it with with examples of the sounds of all the instruments referenced, playing characteristic rifs.