Fundamentals of Jazz Composition: An Exploration of Musical Language

Fundamentals of Jazz Composition

An Exploration of Musical Language

This book presents an in-depth analysis of the vocabulary, methods, and tools of jazz composition. Written from the perspective of the composer, it explores the ways in which the jazz greats wrote the music that has become the standard repertoire.

Harmonic devices, the use of scale, modes, and chords, arrangement, and the vast array of compositional nuances are systematically laid out, explored, demonstrated, and explained, allowing the reader to build themselves a toolbox of compositional tools to bring to bear on their own work.

It presents a comprehensive, intellecual, and accessible account of modal and tonal harmony as it applies to the jazz canon. As a textbook, it guides the student through the fundamental concepts required to nuild a functional compositional disctionary of jazz language. For exmperienced composers, this book provides a wealth of nuanced ideas, from simple chord substitutions to entire modulations, as well as providing a rich reference for the myriad tools available.