# Recommend a great book for starters in 20th and 21st century classical



## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

I'm looking for something generic and reader-friendly for me that am no musician and know only a few things about music theory. There's no problem if the book is long, but I want something that helps me to understand and enjoy all the classical music made by famous composers after Schoenberg. I'm currently (unfortunately, I guess) from the "classical music ended after the death of Shostakovich" club, probably due to ignorance, so it would be great if the book recommended had some suggestions of listenings, particularly from the 21st century.

I've no problem listening to composers like Mahler, Stravinsky, Debussy, Ravel, Bartók, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Holst, Villa-Lobos, Gershwin, Khachaturian, Finzi, Rodrigo or Copland for example, but my current listening experience when I try musicians like Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, Xenakis, Boulez, Stockhasen and Cage for example is very limited.

Youtube videos of insights, discussions or compositions are also welcome.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Did you see this thread:

Music Books - A Quick Reference


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

*Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise*
this is the only book that I bought and read so far and I would recommend it to others. It is a nice overview of 20th century music. The only downside is that the books ends cca 1980, so you will not learn about the recent decades.


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

Jacck said:


> *Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise*
> this is the only book that I bought and read so far and I would recommend it to others. It is a nice overview of 20th century music. The only downside is that the books ends cca 1980, so you will not learn about the recent decades.


This is a good one. Another one I liked is "Illegal Harmonies" by Andrew Ford.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

and a youtube video


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

This channel is very good too:

https://www.youtube.com/user/temporalfissure/videos


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

what got me into atonal music was the piano concerto of Schoenberg, but I had to listen to it 20 times for it to start making sense. I am replaying it now and it is an ingenious composition


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## Ras (Oct 6, 2017)

I have an earlier edition of *Paul Griffiths's "Modern Music"* - read it 10 years ago - excellent.









https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...fix=paul+griffiths,aps,252&crid=1RYF38P6NY58V


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

For a contrarian point of view:


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

The two which have been most helpful to me were _Talking Music_ by William Duckworth, and _Composer to Composer_ by Andrew Ford


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Thanks for all suggestions, people. I feel that I really need some advice on appreciation of modern/contemporary classical and nothing better than a book to help me with that, I think.



Rogerx said:


> Did you see this thread:
> 
> Music Books - A Quick Reference


I didn't see that thread at all. Sorry.


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## Guest (Dec 22, 2018)

_Music After The Fall_ by Tim Rutherford-Johnson will give a very good account of contemporary music and culture. For older music, _Composer to Composer_ is great too, but a bit Australia-centric.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

The Rest is Noise will take you a little beyond Shostakovich but not so far. The trouble might be finding a work that covers all the different strands from "1950" to now and yet is reader-friendly. There are some interesting recommendations in the thread but I am not sure how much of this they achieve.


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## Guest (Dec 23, 2018)

there is no single decent book about contemporary music because it is an impossible task to analyse the works of let us say 100 great contemporary composers; just to analyse xenakis' works is the work of a lifetime;
you will find the 100 greatest in my blogspot: marcbollansee.blogspot.com and all their compositions


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