It is a useful resource if only for the novelty of the large amount and variety of techniques and issues addressed in the space of a single text. Though a worthy addition to a contemporary music library, Techniques of the Contemporary Composer contains a number of serious flaws which prevent it from being a truly authoritative source. The most grievous is the fact that Cope composes his own musical examples rather than reprinting excerpts from other composers' works. In addition, it should be supplemented generously with the original scores of the works whose techniques Cope addresses. The authorial tone throughout is both incisive and non-patronizing, always welcoming and encouraging no matter the level of complexity or abstractness inherent in the basic concepts being discussed.
Several chapters stand out as notable and of potential pedagogical use.
Chapter 2, The Tonal Legacy, encompasses chromaticism and polytonality. In chapter 9, Texture and Modulations, Cope uses the term micropolyphony to describe a textural situation characterized by a simultaneity of different lines, rhythms, and timbres. Chapter 14, Indeterminacy, will be familiar to the reader who has made acquaintance with New Directions in Music . Also familiar to the reader of New Directions will be chapter 18, Media Forms. The strongest chapter, I believe, is chapter 20, Experimental Music, as Cope is on firm ground here and not merely attempting to cover a wide variety of genres for the purpose of writing an authoritative textbook.