Music : Composition Resources

Textbooks/Articles

• Samuel Adler, Orchestration
• Alfred Blatter, Instrumentation/Orchestration
• Leon Dallin, Techniques of Twentieth Century Composition
• Kent Kennan, The Technique of Orchestration
• Stefan Kostka, Materials and Techniques of 20th Century Music
• Paul Sturman, Advanced Harmony Melody Composition
• Leonard Bernstein, The Infinite Variety of Music
• Wallace Berry, Structural Functions in Music
• Aaron Copland, Music and Imagination
• Helen Epstein, Music Talks

Composition Documents

• A Composition Lesson with Beethoven (pdf)
• Having Trouble Getting Started? - Famous Failures (pdf)
• If you Can Write – You Can Compose (pdf)
• Prose from the “Pros” about the Writing Stage (pdf)
• Prose from the “Pros” about the Re-writing Stage (pdf)

SELECTED READING LIST FOR COMPOSER/COMMUNICATORS

Creative Process/Self-Mastery

• If You Can Talk, You Can Write—Joel Saltzman (also on audio cassette)
• 100 Things Every Writer Needs to Know—Scott Edelstein
• Writing on Both Sides of the Brain—Henriette Anne Klauser
• Zen and the Art of Stand-Up Comedy—Jay Sankey
• Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain—Betty Edwards
• The Right to Write—Julia Cameron
• Advice to Writers—Compiled and Edited by Jon Winokur
• How to Inspire Any Audience—Tony Jeary (also on audio cassette)
• How to Give a Damn Good Speech—Philip R. Theibert
• Awaken the Giant Within—Anthony Robbins (also on audio cassette)
• Wherever You Go, There You Are—Jon Kabat-Zinn
• How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci—Michael Gelb
• Talks With Great Composers—Arthur M. Abell
• If You’re Writing, Let’s Talk—Joel Saltzman
• One Continuous Mistake—Gail Sher
• The Soul of Creativity—Edited by Tona Pearce Myers

Effective Communication

• Horse Sense for People—Monty Roberts
• Influence—Robert Cialdini
• Artful Persuasion—Harry Mills
• The Language Instinct—Steven Pinker
• How The Mind Works—Steven Pinker
• The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard—Leonard Bernstein
• Sentics: The Touch of the Emotions—Manfred Clynes
• The Structure of Magic (Volumes 1-3)—John Grinder and Richard Bandler
• Using Your Brain for a Change—Richard Bandler
• Expect the Unexpected or You Won’t Find It—Roger Von Oech
• The Laws of Spirit—Dan Millman
• The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success—Deepak Chopra
• NonverbalCommunication in Human Interaction—Mark L. Knapp and Judith A. Hall
• How to Argue and Win Every Time—Gerry Spence
• On Rhetoric—Aristotle, translated by George A. Kennedy
• In Search of Excellence—Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.
• A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe—Michael S. Schneider
• True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments—C.P.E. Bach
• Seven Habits of Highly Effective People—Stephen Covey (also on audio cassette)
• Say It In Six—Ron Hoff

Contact: Dr. Elaine Ross
Coordinator of Music Theory and Composition
Music Department
Central Washington University
400 East 8th Avenue
Ellensburg, WA 98926
tel: 509-963-1420
fax: 509-963-1239
email: rosse@cwu.edu