Analyzing the Music of Living Composers (and Others)

Analyzing the Music of Living Composers (and Others) is a collection of essays that grew out of the 2010 annual meeting of the West Coast Conference of Music Theory and Analysis (USA). Just like the conference, the book's purpose is to apply traditional music-analytic techniques, as well as new, innovative techniques, to describing the music of composers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Its goal is to take steps toward making music of our time a bit less impenetrable for our colleagues, students and other listeners by showing how it follows, varies and sometimes controverts the organizational schemes of older music. The collection includes chapters analyzing the music of older eras as well, including a number that throw light on the analysis of recent music in unexpected ways, and there are also several chapters that propose innovative analytic approaches to recent popular music and jazz.