Good Textbooks for Electronic Music

[stevel]

I've noticed a lot of the posters here are still in school, so I'm hoping you can advise me:

I'm teaching two courses - MIDI and Digital Audio.

I'm teaching both on Cubase and basically teaching MIDI as multi-track MIDI sequencing, and Audio as multi-track audio recording.

We are getting ready to offer Pro Tools courses, so rather than continue with the Audio course being multi-tracking, I want to steer it towards a more general "electronic" music direction, which includes sampling, waveform editing, digital sound syntehesis, musique concrete, etc. which will include a historical perspective of electronic music.

I need a textbook for MIDI, and a textbook for "electronic" music (and not so much audio production for pop tunes, but more of an "art" music perspective on electronica). In other words, I don't want "Learn Pro Tools" or "Cubase Dymistified" or other software-specific book. I want to teach concepts, not computer programs.

Does anyone have any good textbook suggestions for either or both. Please let me know if you've used any books privately, in school as a student, or as an instructor.

Thanks in advance.

Steve

[reith]

I've had a look but can't find anything up-to-date. There was a book called "Midi for Musicians" (I think) but it's so out of date that it probably doesn't address half the compositional problems you're concerned with. Partly it's the technology that hasn't been allowed to stand still at all and books will invariably consider the technology people are likely to use. It shouldn't affect a given composition but will surely affect the way it's achieved.

As for the aesthetics, no one has yet pinned down any guidelines possibly because of the scope of the thing. Stockhausen's articles on form and structure in Die Reihe were nice in a manner of speaking, but of little use to the practical composer trying to devise some sort of composition strategy (unless you happen to like his style).

So if you do find a suitable book or website, I'd be most interested, if you could kindly pass me the details.
Good luck,
Reith