workings are revealed only to a few or is it a set of skills that can be understood, acquired, and practiced by all? In this ingenious book, award- winning composers and composition teachers Blake Henson and Gerald Custer take a fresh look at what composers actually do by focusing on the elements of craft that composers use every day: the manipulation of sound and silence, gesture and color, text and texture. In an engaging style that resembles an informal conversation between friends (which is how this book began), the authors unpack each major aspect of the composer s craft, explaining what it is and how it works in straightforward language. Selected works by master composers as well as excerpts from music by Henson, Custer, and a number of student composers provide concrete illustrations of the practical concepts described in the text. Each chapter includes thought- starters for reflection and a series of guided exercises based on practical models that allow students to begin acquiring the skills of the composer s craft for themselves. Henson and Custer also confront larger questions seldom considered in most books about composers and composing: Why write music in the first place? Where does inspiration come from? How do you survive writer s block? What s the best way to get published and how important is it anyway?

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