Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century builds on the foundations of Music since the First World War (first published 1977, revised edition 1988). It updates and reshapes the original text and places it in the wider context of twentieth-century serious music before 1918 and after 1975. The focus is on matters of compositional technique, with sections of detailed analytical comment framed by more concise sketches of a range of twentieth-century composers from Fauré to Wolfgang Rihm. Extensiv...

• Millennial Prelude
• Taking Steps: 1900-1918
• Symphonic Music After 1918: I
• Opera
• Béla Bartók
• Igor Stravinsky
• Symphonic Music: II
• Arnold Schoenberg
• Alban Berg
• Anton Webern
• The Spread of Serialism
• Three Individualists (Tippett, Messiaen, Carter)
• Radicals and Rituals
• Musics of Change: Seven Europeans
• The Minimalist Experiment
• Laments and Consolations
• Polarities, Pluralities
• Acknowledgements
• Bibliography
• Index