Description

Book Synopsis
Decomposition is a bracing, revisionary, and provocative inquiry into music—from Beethoven to Duke Ellington, from Conlon Nancarrow to Evelyn Glennie—as a personal and cultural experience: how it is composed, how it is idiosyncratically perceived by critics and reviewers, and why we listen to it the way we do.

Andrew Durkin, best known as the leader of the West Coast–based Industrial Jazz Group, is singular for his insistence on asking tough questions about the complexity of our presumptions about music and about listening, especially in the digital age. In this winning and lucid study he explodes the age-old concept of musical composition as the work of individual genius, arguing instead that in both its composition and reception music is fundamentally a collaborative enterprise that comes into being only through mediation.
 
Drawing on a rich variety of examples—Big Jay McNeely’s “Deacon’s Hop,” Biz Markie&rs

Decomposition A Music Manifesto

    Product form

    £20.80

    Includes FREE delivery

    RRP £26.00 – you save £5.20 (20%)

    Order before 4pm tomorrow for delivery by Sat 1 Aug 2026.

    A Hardback by Andrew Durkin

    Out of stock

      Trusted by thousands of customers. See 2,385+ Customer Reviews

      View other formats and editions of Decomposition A Music Manifesto by Andrew Durkin

      Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 11/18/2014 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN13: 9780307911759, 978-0307911759
      ISBN10: 0307911756

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Decomposition is a bracing, revisionary, and provocative inquiry into music—from Beethoven to Duke Ellington, from Conlon Nancarrow to Evelyn Glennie—as a personal and cultural experience: how it is composed, how it is idiosyncratically perceived by critics and reviewers, and why we listen to it the way we do.

      Andrew Durkin, best known as the leader of the West Coast–based Industrial Jazz Group, is singular for his insistence on asking tough questions about the complexity of our presumptions about music and about listening, especially in the digital age. In this winning and lucid study he explodes the age-old concept of musical composition as the work of individual genius, arguing instead that in both its composition and reception music is fundamentally a collaborative enterprise that comes into being only through mediation.
       
      Drawing on a rich variety of examples—Big Jay McNeely’s “Deacon’s Hop,” Biz Markie&rs

      Recently viewed products

      © 2026 Book Curl

        • American Express
        • Apple Pay
        • Diners Club
        • Discover
        • Google Pay
        • Maestro
        • Mastercard
        • PayPal
        • Shop Pay
        • Union Pay
        • Visa

        Login

        Forgot your password?

        Don't have an account yet?
        Create account