The author's intention is to avoid a pedantic exposition of serial principles and to include many technical details which are also valid in non serial contexts, being the common property of contemporary musical languages. Richard Smith Brindle (born 1917) is a native of Lancashire. He studied at the University College of North Wales, Bangor, in Rome at the Academia di Santa Cecilia, and in Florence privately with Dallapiccola. His own music is influenced by he Italian avant-garde school of berio, Maderna, non, and others. From 1970 until his retirement in 1985 he was Professor of Music at the University of Surrey.

    It is the thesisof this book that a proper design methodology can produce programsof higher reliability and extensibility. The author presentsan impressive set of guidelines and principles to aid in the designof medium- to large-sized programs, as well as examples thatshow proper application of the methodology. Most chapters inthe book contain exercises that test the reader's understanding ofthe material presented, and a complete set of answers is providedat the end."