George Perle - Serial Composition and Atonality (Third Edition, 1960-something)
This is a widely quoted work and apparently one of the first available on the subject in English in the United States. I'm not particularly impressed with it - partially in his inability to use basic mathematical concepts like arithmetic mod12 without lengthy explanation of the obvious and partially in his weird obsessive attitude. He's very much the I-was-into-it-first snob that can be found in all sorts of cultural "scenes" alternately thumbing his nose at and quoting Schoenberg and generally being a pain to read. There have been at least 3 subsequent editions and this copy is missing two pages due to vandalism.
Arnold Schoenberg - Style and Idea and Milton Babbitt - Collected Essays
Understandably, I'm actually going to some effort to obtain these for the Library. Without Babbitt, we wouldn't have the matrix or the word "combinatorial," and without Schoenberg we'd all be modulating to the relative major and splattering chromaticisms and odd Slavonic/Baltic folk melodies into awkward meters, all in a quest to add a little scenery before the inevitable march to cadence.
a bit later:
first, most likely, a book or two biographing and analyzing Webern. Or thoughts and madness will shift and you'll see something unexpected. Possibly some scores from the Second Viennese School.
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