Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century

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 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 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 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 Whittall's emphasis on polarity is a superb way of describing the structure of musical language The Musical Times