Aaron Copland's book, What to Listen for in Music, seemed helpful to me because it explained music, and where music comes from through the eyes of the composer. The book creates the foundation for an intelligent musical appreciation, beginning with such basics as harmony, melody, and rhythm. It also has implicitly caused me to start asking some questions when I'm listening to a piece of music.
             When I previously listened to a piece of music, I used to think about the composer's feelings and wonder how the composer got his or hers inspiration. I found it interesting to know that a composer starts with a musical idea, without questioning whether or not he or she is inspired. I had believed that composers had to get inspiration to be able to write a piece of music.
             The book also describes three different types of composers. The first type of composer is the spontaneously inspired composer; music comes very fluently out of him or her. The constructive type of composer has a creative process and that usually start with a musical theme. The third type of composer is the traditionalist type, these type of composer is a traditionalist, begins composing during a certain period when a particular type of music is about to reach it fullest development. The traditionalist takes the existing music and improves upon it or embellishes. I relate the most to the traditionalist type of composer, since I'm familiar with traditionalist music. I'm familiar with the music of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who is a traditionalist composer. He learned and perfected the techniques that other Renaissance composers such as Josquin des Prez developed, and adapted them to his style. For example, Josquin's music had voices in pairs which always entered tw!
             o at a time, instead of singly. This was a relatively simple style of music. On the other hand Palestrina's music was much fuller
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