Need some feedback! Composition discussion?

Sally Sparrow · 06-03-2010, 04:11 PM

Hi, so I'm doing an Arts Award and have to write a discussion to do with the arts, I've chosen music. You don't have to be a music expert to reply! I don't even need anything long! Any thoughts regarding the subject will be helpful. Thankyouu!

Is composition a natural human instinct or a complex mathematical process?

When listening to music, I can be very critical of different aspects from the instrumentation to a certain lyric which doesn't quite do it for me. Whether it be classical or popular music, I have to feel something that makes me want to listen to it again. I think that music is a very emotional outlet, you can hear so many different feelings within it. Whilst art and film can capture a certain image, music captures the moment.
This year for the analysis section in Music, I chose to study Vaughan Williams' Symphony No.5 in D Major. After listening to the whole symphony several times over in my own time, I had fallen in love with the third movement. It seemed to evoke so many memories and emotions that when I actually got down to analysing it in lessons, it spoilt the connection I had made with the piece. Such a structured and academic view on how Williams had composed and worked the movement removed any sort of feeling from what we were listening to.
I'm a kinesthetic learner so, when composing my own music, I begin by playing different melodies, chords and rhythms on a keyboard to see which best suit what I'm aiming for. I decide whether or not I want vocals or if it will just be an insturmental piece and whether it will be major or minor and roughly what musical form I will be using. The rest is simply done by ear. In many of my previous compositions, when completing an annotation, I've had to go back and figure out the chords I used or the modulatons throughout the piece after finishing it. I base my music on how it sounds to me rather than how it looks on paper and after spending time with other students on my course it would seem that I'm generally the only one to use this method. Of course, they aim for something that sounds pleasing to the ear but to get there they try to include certain musical techniques, harmonic and rhythmic devices for example, whereas I, after completing the piece, discover I've used these unintentionally anyway.
Another way of composing that I find effective, although not if I have a time limit, is to wait until I am so moved by an emotion or image, that I will be able to imagine the style of music to accompany it and will then go away and write down everything I can think of, the rest will just be down to experimentation. Admittedly, my own music compositions usually involve vocal lines as the melody and a very simple form of accompaniment but recently for my A2 coursework I decided to challenge myself and composed a three minute requiem. Each minute being a different miniature section including an Agnus Dei, In Paradisum and a Lacrymosa to show my different skills in conveying emotions, as these feelings are what fuelled my ideas. Furthermore, throughout this process, not once did the technicals of the music enter my mind unlike the famous composers various analysis books lead us to believe.
So this got me thinking, when we analyse music for our A levels, are we being taught what the composers actually wanted to convey; or is it just our interpretation? Did Williams think of the technical aspects when composing; the way that the text books read or did he just think it felt right? Was he inspired by things the way I often am or was it just another day, another symphony?

Please reply with any thoughts on the discussion? What do you think composition is? Really important that I get something pleeeease!

Thanks.

VEGANGELICA · 06-07-2010, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sally Sparrow

I base my music on how it sounds to me rather than how it looks on paper and after spending time with other students on my course it would seem that I'm generally the only one to use this method. Of course, they aim for something that sounds pleasing to the ear but to get there they try to include certain musical techniques, harmonic and rhythmic devices for example, whereas I, after completing the piece, discover I've used these unintentionally anyway.
Another way of composing that I find effective, although not if I have a time limit, is to wait until I am so moved by an emotion or image, that I will be able to imagine the style of music to accompany it and will then go away and write down everything I can think of, the rest will just be down to experimentation.

So this got me thinking, when we analyse music for our A levels, are we being taught what the composers actually wanted to convey; or is it just our interpretation? Did Williams think of the technical aspects when composing; the way that the text books read or did he just think it felt right? Was he inspired by things the way I often am or was it just another day, another symphony?

Please reply with any thoughts on the discussion? What do you think composition is? Really important that I get something pleeeease!

Thanks.

Hi Sally. Hmmm...I suspect most composers do a combination: they have a feeling that inspires their music, and they try to include some techniques they enjoy (like my favorites, counterpoint and polyrhythm).

I doubt older composers felt a ho-hum feeling when they were composing. The process may have been very tedious then (no computers!), but I suspect composers usually *felt* very strongly whether the music they were making matched what they "enheard" (instead of "envisioned").

06-03-2010, 04:11 PM	#1 (permalink)
Sally Sparrow Groupie Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 1	Need some feedback! Composition discussion? Hi, so I'm doing an Arts Award and have to write a discussion to do with the arts, I've chosen music. You don't have to be a music expert to reply! I don't even need anything long! Any thoughts regarding the subject will be helpful. Thankyouu! Is composition a natural human instinct or a complex mathematical process? When listening to music, I can be very critical of different aspects from the instrumentation to a certain lyric which doesn't quite do it for me. Whether it be classical or popular music, I have to feel something that makes me want to listen to it again. I think that music is a very emotional outlet, you can hear so many different feelings within it. Whilst art and film can capture a certain image, music captures the moment. This year for the analysis section in Music, I chose to study Vaughan Williams' Symphony No.5 in D Major. After listening to the whole symphony several times over in my own time, I had fallen in love with the third movement. It seemed to evoke so many memories and emotions that when I actually got down to analysing it in lessons, it spoilt the connection I had made with the piece. Such a structured and academic view on how Williams had composed and worked the movement removed any sort of feeling from what we were listening to. I'm a kinesthetic learner so, when composing my own music, I begin by playing different melodies, chords and rhythms on a keyboard to see which best suit what I'm aiming for. I decide whether or not I want vocals or if it will just be an insturmental piece and whether it will be major or minor and roughly what musical form I will be using. The rest is simply done by ear. In many of my previous compositions, when completing an annotation, I've had to go back and figure out the chords I used or the modulatons throughout the piece after finishing it. I base my music on how it sounds to me rather than how it looks on paper and after spending time with other students on my course it would seem that I'm generally the only one to use this method. Of course, they aim for something that sounds pleasing to the ear but to get there they try to include certain musical techniques, harmonic and rhythmic devices for example, whereas I, after completing the piece, discover I've used these unintentionally anyway. Another way of composing that I find effective, although not if I have a time limit, is to wait until I am so moved by an emotion or image, that I will be able to imagine the style of music to accompany it and will then go away and write down everything I can think of, the rest will just be down to experimentation. Admittedly, my own music compositions usually involve vocal lines as the melody and a very simple form of accompaniment but recently for my A2 coursework I decided to challenge myself and composed a three minute requiem. Each minute being a different miniature section including an Agnus Dei, In Paradisum and a Lacrymosa to show my different skills in conveying emotions, as these feelings are what fuelled my ideas. Furthermore, throughout this process, not once did the technicals of the music enter my mind unlike the famous composers various analysis books lead us to believe. So this got me thinking, when we analyse music for our A levels, are we being taught what the composers actually wanted to convey; or is it just our interpretation? Did Williams think of the technical aspects when composing; the way that the text books read or did he just think it felt right? Was he inspired by things the way I often am or was it just another day, another symphony? Please reply with any thoughts on the discussion? What do you think composition is? Really important that I get something pleeeease! Thanks.