Gems of Compositional Wisdom

[salo-t]

I just rediscovered this series of articles about composition I originally read some years ago:

Gems of Compositional Wisdom by Matt Fields

Many interesting ideas, especally in the first article about dramatic shape.

[orczy]

The two that I recieved have stuck. Both from Douglas Lilburn (not directly to me, seconhand):"Don't try and diddle your audience", and the other (remove the bit you like the best".
Very useful.
Another, this time Liszt: "New wine demands new bottles". I like this one a lot, particularly as it means none of us need write in sonata form!

[johan_h]

[salo-t]

[blue hell]

I know not very much about music theory, but I do know a bit in other fields - enough to see theories changing ove rthe years.

IMO It's always good to realize that theory might be wrong and that one should not stop observing just because something is written somewhere.

This is certainly not meant to say that theory has no value, but I see it more as a means to be able to have a quick start on something (and apart from that it can be fun as well ;-)

Jan.

[Afro88]

[mosc]

I think these kinds of articles are excellent. One just has to separate what you do from what you read. At best, I think these kind of theories are good to read, understand, appreciate, and then let loose in the subconsious mind to contribute to your music as little or as much as comes naturally.

[orczy]

[mosc]

There is wisdom in letting go of that which we fight hardest to keep.

[Stanley Pain]

dave mustaine from Megadeth (no no no... keep reading!) was once asked how he approached writing music. he said:

"i always put my guitar on the same way."

i find there's an element of ritual in my compositional process. i've been through experimental phases and i've been through genre phases and the thing that remains constant in what i do is patience, which is something i learned.

save your work at all stages, keep it archived whatever format you work in, and be prepared to ditch anything. if stuck for inspiration revisit earlier work.

[elektro80]

The books by Belkin are very good.



Principles of Counterpoint by Alan Belkin

[Kassen]

Was this posted already?
http://www.lcdf.org/indeterminacy/about.html
Heavy on the Zen and the mushrooms but there´s a lot of wisdom in there.

[Doobah]

What is this counterpoint you talk of? I have heard, or perhaps dreamed, that it is a technique for composers to start in the middle of a piece rather than the beginning, or is that not true...

Having skimmed through Principles of Counterpoint, I'm still confused as what it means. My musical vocabulary isn't what it should be. Is there a simple definition, or should I dig out the crib sheets and buy a dictionary of musical terms?

[seraph]

[Doobah]

So, for example a melody and accompany playing at the same time?

Alot of jargon do describe a very simple technique. Typical, reminds me of my music teachers at school...not very helpful.

[elektro80]

Well.. could be.. but then again not. It depends on which school you subscribe to. You could as well be talking about homophony here and not anything close to counterpoint extravaganza. Try thinking layers of melodies and phrases that will play well together rather than a melody and a chord based arrangement.

Try reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpoint again.. and follow the links.

There is of course some politically correct hype re counterpoint. Quite obviously you could do this by the book and still end up with something along the lines of Burt Bacharach ( which in most cases is a nice idea anyway).

[opg]

The year I was at music school, we spent an entire semester on Bach chorales. There are books and books on counterpoint theory, so it obviously wasn't a first-year class. But whatever I thought about counterpoint before the Bach chorales made even less sense.

With Bach chorales, you're following strict rules when creating 4-voice songs (hmm....kinda like Gameboy, if you count the noise channel). In our exercises, for example, we were given the key we were to write it in, how many measures, and what chord changes and note movements had to happen somewhere in the song. When you limit it like this, things become very mathematical, but there are still enough combinations that everyone's exercise sounded different. However, the teacher would play everyone's exercise on the piano, and some were better than others even though they had followed all the rules.

Is this where the theory of counterpoint begins?

[elektro80]

[mosc]

Counterpoint implies 2 or more independent melodic lines that are played against each other. Contrapuntal music is a special kind. The most famous examples are Bach Fugues. Bach Chorales are usually not considered contrapuntal music, although some of the individual parts can move contrapuntally. There is, of course, harmony involved in contrapuntal music, but you can use other harmonic systems than Bach's tertian harmony. I like to write contrapuntal atonal and almost 12 tone music.

The rules can be pretty simple:

- independent voices (not voice and accompaniment)
- primarily contrary motion vs. parallel motion

contrapuntal music sometimes shows up in pop music. The Beatles and Queen comes to mind.

[opg]

[Tim Kleinert]

[seraph]

[Uncle Krunkus]

I don't believe in "classical" training to any great degree, but at the same time I'm not scared of studying old ideas and generalisations.

"The less you learn about what has gone before you, the less chance there is that you'll do something new."

I just made that up by the way.

[seraph]

[paul e.]