Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century

Reviews / Votes

a magisterial account of a phenomenally broad range of musical styles, distinguished by clarity of expression, comprehensiveness of coverage, sustained analytical insights and first-rate presentation. As a readable and highly informative introduction to the compositonal techniques of 'serious' music of the last century, it is likely to remain a standard text, its grasp of essential aesthetic trends ensuring that both the complexity and humanity of the modern composer's art are vividly conveyed. * Musical Letters, vol. 82, no. 3 * A valuable aspect of Whittall's book is ... its intelligent assessment of Soviet commposers on the evidence of their musical skills rather than merely considering their relationship to their cultural context. * Musical Letters, vol. 82, no. 3 * The discussion of Nielsen's Fifth Symphony is especially fine, and sufficiently compelling in content and enthusiastic in tone as to send the reader directly off to listen to the music. * Musical Letters, vol. 82, no. 3 * The text is shot through with genuine and telling insights into the compositional process, and the author's observations are expressed throughout with a polished clarity that demands that the book be recommended as an essential preliminary read for all would-be students of twentieth-century classical music. * Musical Letters, vol. 82, no. 3 * Whittall's emphasis on polarity is a superb way of describing the structure of musical language * The Musical Times *