Composition Smith Brindle Can it be taught? Should it be taught? Composing teaches us about the depth of music, takes us on a journey into the mysteries of music, becoming a wonderful experience. 2 opinions: 1. Cannot be taught 2. Should not be taught Students should study composition: Composition comprises of all the musical knowledge and disciplines, including practice, performing and historical. Performers can learn the reason behind the notes. Notation (accents, dynamic markings, etc) can only give so much information about how a piece should be performed. Composing helps to give a performer more in-sight to music. Improvisation becomes more poignant. Melodic phrase construction, formal principles, stylistic idioms are major components to music itself. Without understanding these, the improviser is in danger of playing meaningless events that are possibly destructive to the music as it unfolds. Understanding the process of composing music gives insight to music when listening to it. Your livelihood depends on it. I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand. If all musicians were to do, to compose, to think out a few notes however rudimentary, they would understand. They would have a lesson about their trade that no one else can give. - Reginald Smith Brindle First ideas Work creates work When getting started, it is difficult to start with nothing. Start with a line or a shape on the page. Ask a few questions: What instruments What is the style What is the form How long What kind of piece (dance, meditation, poetry, atmosphere, movie scene?) Get started! Piano use it but learn to write without it.

2 Uniform, consistency, use similar material. Do not use too much detail in the start. FLOW. Focus on melodic flow when this happens first. Save working on harmony. Form Without form, a piece may be meaningless, unmemorable. Good form ensures that the musical emotional message is convincing, unified and complete. Unity However, too much music without change can create boredom, the mind wanders. Too much change creates confusion and/or loss of interest. When music changes, we are immediately alerted. However, too much change is destructive. Continuity helps the listener remember what has happened before.

In architecture, when one view has been observed for any length of time, we change our view, and then we come back. Music is a journey in (through) time. We are absorbed at first but psychologically we need change. This may weave back and forth, however, not disrupting the emotional flow. Hopefully keeping interest alive, thus being rewarded. Statement and change: AB ABA ABACA AABA ABACADA ABACABA Repetition Melody Rising and falling Rhythmic designs Rhythm makes a melody unique, memorable Distinctive note patterns Conjunct/disjunct (wider intervals effect emotional flow) High notes at climaxes Low notes (emotional decline or sudden power when leaped to?) Well-defined phrases (punctuation in language is the same for music) Harmonic suggestion Emotive contour Emotive intensity: Rapid movement Increasing impetus Strong rhythms

3 Higher register More volume Emotive relaxation: Less movement Declining impetus Weaker rhythms Lower register Less volume

Arnold Schoenberg The composer should never invent a melody with out being conscious of the harmony. Form without form, music would be an amorphous mass, unintelligible as an essay without punctuation, disconnected as a conversation jumping from one subject to another. Form brings comprehension in a logical and cohesive way. Ideas relate to one another. Man can only grasp so much in his mind. Subdivision helps one to retain understanding, to connect ideas. When a sculpture creates the human body, the form is complete, the form is complete in its entire entity. Beginning composers must start with simple forms. MELODY Phrase a series of notes that one can sing in one breath. Consisting of a number of integrated musical events that contain a kind of completeness (as in a comma in a sentence) and works in combination with other musical phrases. Motive consists of interval and rhythms, combined to produce a memorable shape or contour. Motive is the seed (germ) of the piece, the common denominator. However, everything depends on its use and development. A motive appears constantly throughout a piece, it is repeated. Repetition often gives rise to monotony. Monotony can only be overcome by variation.