Form in Music, Second Edition

Rating:
Summary: Berry's down to earth book on musical form
Review: Wallace Berry's, Form in Music, is easier to read than other music theory books. The book explains musical forms such as; binary, ternary, rondo and others. Berry uses proper terminology and eplains why other words or phrases should not be used. He clearly defines musical terms and gives a formula for musical forms. He cites many pieces of music to prove or show how the formula is realized. He also explains how some pieces and composers broke the formula. My one complaint about the book deals with these citations. There is not enough musical notation examples to read and look at when Berry refers to a piece. He refers to pieces that are never notated. When dealing with musical form and analysis one needs the music. In Green's Form in Tonal Music, Volume 2 is a whole book full of musical examples. Green, however, is not as readable as Berry.