Harmony for a New Millennium: An Introduction to Metatonal Music (Book) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This book does everything it claims to: providing a framework for music outside of tonality, but without the mathematical rigor of serialism. Sandke's theory is based on four-note sets (and complements thereof) that cannot be described by standard tonal nomenclature. He demonstrates various ways of organizing and extending these sets, either as a way of improvising over a preexisting tonal piece or as compositional material. It's really pretty awesome, but I would suggest that anyone who picks up this book have a basic understanding of both tonality and serialism. Sandke's approach seems to have developed as a response to those two ideas, and a way of addressing their limitations, so you won't really understand why he thinks the way he does unless you're familiar with the preexisting models. His approach is open-ended in a way that will intrigue experienced musicians, who have spent a lot of time thinking about these things, but will probably frustrate beginners.

My one criticism of this book is that it would greatly benefit from a CD of recorded examples. Sandke cites recordings of his own in which the techniques are used, but it's up to the reader to track them down. Still, as someone who has played music for many years but only recently gained an appreciation of theory, this book was perfect for me. It is a genuinely unique approach which, even if you choose to deviate from it, will give you a bunch of new ideas.

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Product Description:
This book by versatile trumpet player and composer Randy Sandke is divided into three parts. In Part One, he identifies and organizes all four-note chords which lie beyond the tonal system and cannot be represented by conventional chord systems. Part Two deals with deriving melodic material from these metatonal chords, and in Part Three, Sandke shows how he has used these ideas in his own music, with example pieces included for symphony orchestra and jazz quintet."A fresh, creative approach to improvisation ... Highly recommended."- Michael Brecker

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