Musical Design - Sound and Sense

The books of the series Sound and Sense were published by Reed Education and used in New Zealand secondary schools for the School Certificate Music Syllabus during the late 70s and 80s. They are now out of print.

Text from Back Cover:

General Editor: Guy E. Jansen, Senior Lecturer and Head of Music Department, Christchurch Teachers’ College, Secondary Division.
Guy Jansen is well-known in musical circles in New Zealand. He has served on the PPTA Music Curriculum Panel, the Department of Education committees responsible for revising the Core Music and School Certificate Music Prescriptions, and the Universities Entrance Board Music Revision Committee. He is editor of Looking at Music Education and Workbook for the UE Music Prescription 1973-75.
The Series: The series is intended as a general introduction to the history and structure of music and its basic concepts of rhythm, timbre, dynamics, form, texture, melody, harmony and style. It is suitable for the general reader as well as the specialist and may be used with Fourth and Fifth forms in New Zealand to cover the new School Certificate Prescription. The emphasis of the series is on discovery of musical concepts through directed creative activity. There are five titles in the series.
  1. Aural Perception, Maurice Larsen, Senior Lecturer in Music, Auckland Secondary Teachers’ College.
  2. The Language of Music, Norman Daniels, Headmaster, Cathedral Grammar School, Christchurch.
  3. Musical Design, Kit Powell, Linwood High School, Christchurch.
  4. Musical Textures, David Sell, Senior Lecturer in Music, Canterbury University, Christchurch.
  5. The Literature of Music, Robert Field-Dodgson, Director of Music, Christ's College, Christchurch.
A teacher's guide and a set of E.P. records containing essential musical examples will be published.

Guy Jansen was at that time Senior Lecturer in Music at the Christchurch Teachers College. I had met him earlier at my first visit to the Cambridge Music School. When he left the Teachers College in 1975, Frank Dennis moved into Guy's position and I into Frank's.

David Sell was also involved in the Contemporary Music Society and instrumental in the commissioning of Stone Poem. He was also on the committee which appointed me to the position as Lecturer at the Teachers College.

Robert Field-Dodgeson was best known in Christchurch in those years as conductor of the Royal Christchurch Musical Society which later commissioned The Ever-Circling Light.

Instagram June 2020

graysongilmour …stumbled upon this series of music books last week, which in hindsight completely blew my teenage brain / reshaped my understanding of ‘music’. From memory, these 1970s resources simply gathered dust when I was at high school, but being a total nerd I’d often read through them! Admittedly, I even ended up stealing the 7” out of the back of vol. 4 and sampling Stockhausen from it for my first solo EP (lol)… ❤️ #music #typography #design #graphicscore #graphicnotation #sampling #1970s