The essential summer reading list for composers

''Omg, that is TOTALLY photoshopped.'' OH NO - you've caught me! My career is ruined!

It's that time again, fellow musicians and enthusiasts - when people pack into airports bound for sunny beaches, kids run rampant, and the sun shines brighter. For teachers, the summer is a time for relaxing, reading, and preparing for the next school year. For the rest of us, life goes on as usual - but there's something satisfying about a summer reading list, and these books are essential reading for composers. 

1. Principles of Orchestration- Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

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Necessary reading for any composer, but it's also a good book to come back to for a refresher course. It was one of my New Year's resolutions to revisit theory and orchestration, and this book is a good primer. You can get it cheap, and it's packed full of listening examples from his own compositions. Wind ensemble enthusiast beware - Rimsky-Korsakov has a love affair with the strings, and frequently makes biting remarks about how woodwinds ''fatigue the ear after only a few moments.'' Still, it's a good reminder about working with balance in larger ensembles, and really digging into the sonorities for melodies and harmonies alike.

2. Instrumentation and Orchestration- Alfred Blatter

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While Rimsky-Korsakov's book focuses on balance and sonority, this book digs deep into the capabilities of each instrument, detailing ranges for elementary - advanced players, additional techniques, mutes, uses within the orchestra, and examples of effective orchestration. As you can probably see in the image above, my copy is well-worn; that's because I won't sit down to write without it. It includes tips on scoring and extracting parts, how to right for vocal soloists and ensembles, and a number of appendixes that detail ancient music notation, trombone glissandos, the international phonetic alphabet, and fingerings. This book is a heavy hitter, and I cannot recommend it enough! 

3. A Composer's Guide to Game Music- Winifred Phillips

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If you haven't seen it yet, click here to go read my in-depth blog post about this book. If you like video games, if you play Candy Crush on your commute, if you've ever thought to yourself, ''Maybe I could write music for video games,'' this book is for you. Go read the review! Buy the book! 

4.Opera: the Undoing of Women- Catherine Clement

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This is another book I've reviewed recently: go read the review. As composers, we should all be aware of the tropes that can easily flow from our imaginations and feel like original, fresh material. Instead of rehashing the same tired, misogynistic ideals, let's make new art, okay? Okay.

(Full disclosure: these are Amazon affiliate links, and how I am trying to keep this blog ad-free.)

What's on your summer reading list? Tell me in the comments!