Composing Electronic Music

"""a worthwhile addition to electronic music literature."" -- Richard Barrett, Journal of Sonic Studies ""Clearly formulated starting points engage the reader in more challenging concepts and interesting lines of enquiry, contextualising the many perspectives surrounding each topic. This well researched treasure chest of quotes, references, and examples illustrates an insightful text which the author, himself with decades of experience as a transcontinental practitioner, has enriched with personal reflections that in turn allow the reader to do the same.""-Natasha Barrett Curtis Roads' book is a kind of prism that reevaluates the field of music composition in the light of the new technologies of the 21st century. He builds a thousand bridges between different approaches to attributes like pitch, rhythm, time scales, and even sonic narratives in order to help us to understand present music practices."" -Horacio Vaggione, composer, Professor Emeritus, the University of Paris VIII ""A rich and enjoyable survey for the computer musician, ranging from the objects of compositional manipulation to the performative aspects of the shaping of sensory experience. This book will be of interest not only to the electronic music composer, but also to the performing musician, and the general reader interested in the process and principles of musical design."" -Elaine Chew, Professor of Digital Media, Queen Mary University of London ""[I]f you want a great overview of just about any aspect of the field of electronic music, you'll find it in this book. Clearly written, with a minimum of mathematics, it's the kind of book you can refer to time and time again.""--SoundBytes ""Time is passing, and when I came back to Paris, I read [the] wonderful book Composing Electronic Music : A New Aesthetic. Congratulations! It is a great book! I totally agree with the main thesis of this book, clarifying that electronic music has been opening a new full area on the history of music, and putting a clear separation between the area of 'acoustic' music, and the area of 'electronic' music. What a pleasure to read a book which explains to us all the foundations of electronic music, all of its researchs, its true history, etc...I hope that [the] book is going to be translated in French, because the French music situation needs it absolutely!"" -- Jean-Claude Eloy, French composer of instrumental, vocal and electroacoustic music ""The text does have the primary motivational benefit that at many moments it makes the reader want to go and compose. Aside from the joy of crafting pure sound at many structural levels, it provokes new organizational ideas in reaction to theory.""--Music and Letters"