Books

With Steven L. Rosenhaus, Palgrave Macmillan

This book is a comprehensive survey and guide to the creation of commercial musical theater. It is intended for both novice and veteran writers, as well as for anyone else interested in how musical theater is written. It is based on our studies (including my twelve years in Lehman Engel’s BMI Musical Theatre Workshop and one year in the ASCAP Workshop), on our professional experiences in writing, rehearsing, and performing shows, and on our years of teaching composition for musical theater to college students. Part One analyzes the principles and techniques behind the creation of libretto, lyrics, and music, with numerous examples from important shows. Part Two is a tutorial that takes the reader step by step, from the initial idea through the early stages of writing libretto and score for both an adaptation and an original. Four appendices provide additional information on related subjects. This book is intended to be the definitive and standard work in the field.

“Cohen and Rosenhaus demonstrate all their talents in this
readable and practical two-part manual ... of equal value 

to beginning practitioners and those with a general 

interest in musical theater ... Recommended.” 

Choice

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Praeger Publishers

This book explores the relationship between theory and practice in the work of an important 20th-century American composer, conductor, and educator. Howard Hanson developed a theory of classification of every possible collection of pitch-classes in the chromatic scale, showing ways of deriving larger collections from smaller ones, and demonstrating significant relationships among them; this theory anticipated, in many ways, the standard formulations of musical set theory as presented in the works of Allen Forte, Milton Babbitt, and other writers. My book summarizes Hanson’s theory and evaluates it, tests Hanson’s claims for its usefulness as a tool of analysis and as a method for composers, and determines the extent to which he put his theory into practice. Finally it considers the question of why he developed the theory, and to what extent his own compositional style influenced the development of the theory. It also contains the most complete biography of Hanson to appear in print.

“[A] significant addition to the study of music theory...
Highly recommended.” Choice

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Scholastic Books

This was a joke book for children of all ages, especially those around seven to ten years old. It sold more than half a million copies. It is theoretically still in print, although Scholastic has not offered it for years. If you want one, please write to Scholastic or call them, and tell them to sell it again!

“[A] significant addition to the study of music theory...
Highly recommended.” Choice

To contact Scholastic and order it, click the button below.