Fundamentals of Musical Composition represents the culmination of more than forty years in Schoenberg's life dedicated to teaching musical principles to students and composers in Europe and America. For his classes, he developed a method of presentation where 'each technical issue is discussed in a very basic way, so that it is both simple and thorough'. This book can be used for both analysis and composition. On one hand, it has the practical goal of introducing students to the composition process in a systematic way, from the smallest to the largest forms. On the other hand, the author analyzes in detail and with many illustrations those specific sections in the works of the masters that relate to the composition problem mentioned.