Musical Structure and Design

Rating:
Summary: Great little book
Review: Davie's little volume is a very concise and well-done book which serves as an excellent indroduction to this important aspect of music theory. I was very rusty on the subject, and needed a quick read to get me back up to speed. Davie's book succeeds very well, without a lot of extra detail and great technical difficulty. Davie peppers the text with lots of examples illustrating the different principles, and as a practicing composer himself, Davie knows whereof he speaks. Overall, an excellent little book to read and learn from. After reading this book, you'll have the background to tackle the weightier tomes on this subject, if you're so inclined.

My only complaint is the writing style is a little dry, and Davie is certainly not alone in this for technical books on music theory, so that's why the four stars in my rating. But I would give it four and a half stars if I could, since it really is a great little primer, and I haven't seen anything else that does as good a job in such a concise format.