Music Composition DUMmIES

devised by Schenker. The analysis reveals the inner musical workings of the

music, dividing it into what is called the foreground and the fundamental

structure. The foregroundis the part of the music that immediately attracts a

listener’s attention, such as the rhythm or the repeated chord changes; the

fundamental structure is composed of the arrhythmic pitch events that help

keep the music from sounding mechanical.

The beauty of Schenkerian analysis is that it is completely subjective, and

there is no right or wrong answer to how each individual dissects a piece of

music. Each analysis reflects the musical intuitions of the analyst, and shows

what he or she thinks is the underlying structure or most important parts of

a given piece of music. It’s a more philosophical way of studying music than

most theoretical approaches, and one more way to learn how to really sit and

listen to a piece of music, instead of allowing it to disappear into background

noises at a cocktail party.

The Virgin Directory of World Music .........................................................

by Philip Sweeney, Owl Books/Henry Holt & Company

This is an extremely well-organized summary of traditional music from

around the world. The book is divided into specific regions of the world:

Africa (North, West, Central, South, and East), Europe (North, South, and

East), the Middle East and India, and so on. Each division is then broken

down into the states and countries of those regions, with detailed descrip-

tions of the types of traditional music coming from those regions. There’s

even detailed mention of notable performers who recorded and released

albums of the music of their region, from Ladysmith Black Mambazo to

Jamaica’s Jolly Boys.

The Rough Guide to Classical Music, 4th Edition ....................................

edited by Joe Staines and Duncan Clark, published by Rough Guides,

distributed by Penguin

The Rough Guides are arguably the best music-critique book series out there,

with titles ranging from The Rough Guide to Reggaeto The Rough Guide to

Opera. This book works for people who are just taking their first steps into

the world of classical music appreciation — and for those who are massive

classical music fans already but want to see if they’ve overlooked any essential

276 Part V: The Part of Tens