New Directions in Music

by David Cope

Directions in the musical avant-garde in the past fifty years seem as numerous and diverse as the composers and their works. Yet these directions have historical motives and aesthetic values, traceable and uniquely observable due to their singularly radical nature. Building on the success of previous editions, the Seventh Edition of New Directions in Music explores the history, philosophy, composers, and works of the avant-garde since the late 1940s, emphasizing works departing radically from tradition. Outstanding features include extensive bibliographies of written works and recordings; interviews with important avant-garde composers, showing readers firsthand the thought behind their works; in-depth analyses of specific works relevant to each chapter; and addresses, with websites, of publishers of avant-garde music.

Genres: Music

259 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

David “Dave” Cope was an American author, composer, scientist, and Dickerson Emeriti Professor of Music at UC Santa Cruz. His primary area of research involved artificial intelligence and music; he wrote programs and algorithms that can analyze existing music and create new compositions in the style of the original input music. He taught the groundbreaking summer workshop in Workshop in Algorithmic Computer Music (WACM) that was open to the public as well as a general education course entitled Artificial Intelligence and Music for enrolled UCSC students. Cope was also co-founder and CTO Emeritus of Recombinant Inc., a music technology company.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very thorough examination of the philosophies and techniques of the mid-to-late 20th century's avant-garde composers. Contains extensive analysis of improvisation, indeterminancy, and more.