Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #570192 in Books
• Published on: 1980-11-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Customer Reviews

Useful to expand one's knowledge of notation to include modernism, but unfortunately a bit dated
Kurt Stone was chief editor of Associated Music Publishers in the early 1950s when the first works by high modernists such as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, and Luciano Berio appeared. The revolutionary new music of these modern composers called for new notational devices, and Stone knew that music engravers not only had to be brought up to speed, but also work to create some standards so performers wouldn't get frustrated by differing means of notation. He participated in a conference in Ghent in 1974, and then out of the work of the conference put together MUSIC NOTATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: A Practical Guidebook. Though Stone meant his work for engravers, the performer or simple fan of modernism will also find this an interesting work as well.

When it comes to the Darmstadt generation and early mature Elliott Carter, this is an excellent resource. Stone shows the notation of such concepts as microtones (in all their competing standards), aperiodic rhythms, tone clusters, and aleatorism. There are individual chapters for many instruments: harp, woodwinds, percussion, organ, etc. One form of notation that Stone does not cover is graphical notation, the scores-as-artwork approach by e.g. Cardew in his "Treatise". Stone explains that these scores intentionally avoid any standardization, but he does provide a few samples for the reader.

One does regret, however, that Stone's book was never updated after its publication in 1980. Indeed, much of the material dates back to the Ghent conference several years earlier. As a result, one misses notation like Per Norgard's golden section rhythms (which many find challenging when they first see them) and Stockhausen's continuing inventions. A second edition is vitally needed. Nonetheless, if you can read music and want to better understand the scores of the high modernists, Stone's book is very much worth a read.

The Definitive Music Notation text (well worth hunting down)
There are in exisstence a number of useful music notation texts. For quick reference, there is Tom gerou's 'Essential Dictionary of Music Notation'. For an in-depth examination of engraving conventions, there is Ted Ross's 'The Art of Music Engraving & Processing' (includes a history of the processes involved), and a number of titles by Gardner Read. But for all-round comprehensiveness (especially pertaining to contemporary music notation practice), Kurt Stone's book is without a shadow of a doubt the one to get.

A must have for a music engraver--too bad it's out of print
This book is very useful for the professional music engraver. It covers many topics that "traditional" engraving texts tend not to cover as far as 20th Century engraving practices are concerned.