HOW do you compose?

[Will Kirk]

Originally Posted by stevel

I offer this analogy: A novelist doesn't just sit down and start typing "it was a dark and stormy night" and write a novel. Most novelists consider all sorts of things - what it will be - murder, romance, both - how nmany characters there will be, will there be plot twists, will it be set in the past, the present, have flashbacks, and so, before they ever write a letter.

Now, that's not to say they might not come up with a phrase, or set of words that inspires them, but I'd say generally speaking, a lot of "pre-writing" takes place. Film-makers are another good analogy. They don't just turn the camera on and say "action" to make the film. They have to have a screenplay, decide on camera angles, and so on and so forth.

Sometimes, I will have an idea that can be as simple as "I bet an alto and bass flute would make a cool duet" and that gets the ball rolling. Other times, I might be playing another instrument and make a sound or pattern that interests me. That usually ends up turning into some playing around with the sounds and seeing what can be made from them, and then maybe there's enough to warrant an actual piece.

But no matter what the initial inspiration, I, for lack of a better term, usually "outline" my pieces. I decide what it's going to consist of before I start writing (though I might have a motive, or phrase, or chord progression, or set of interesting rhythms etc. that I know I'm going to incorporate).

A common story is of the student that comes in to their composition lesson and shows their work. The instructor says "these 8 or 16 bars are great, where's the rest?". And the student says "I don't know where to make it go" - or I don't know what comes next, etc. As a result, a lot of students end up patchworking together a bunch of unrelated ideas in order to make the piece "longer", but what happens is is comes out incoherent and "amateurish" sounding. The reason they can't make it go anywhere is, they haven't even thought about where it should go.

I recently wrote a work that I'll use as an example because it's pretty clear. Firstly, I had been wanting to write a small work for duet. I needed some kind of "restrictions" (one of my colleagues talks about setting up a "paradigm" for the piece - that is, the world in which the piece lives). I found a call for scores that had restrictions that helped inspire me to write something, but keep it within some guidelines. I have found (like my colleague mentions) that if you can do "anything", it's too hard to narrow down what you're going to do. So in an effort to get rid of junk you don't need, you can set up a little world in which this piece operates (just like how stories like Star Wars create their own little reality).

One of the restrictions of this event was that pieces were 100 notes or less.

So what I did was write 10 little mini movements of 10 notes each. I decided that I would use the duo. I decided to use 10 notes of the chormatic scale for each "movement". I decided each instrument would have a solo movement where they played all 10 notes. Then the rest I divided up. I decided NOT to do like 1:9, 2:8, 3:7, 4:6, etc. and try to have one of each possible combination. I felt that was a little too restrictive. I decided I wanted to have one piece where it was 5:5, and they played together, same rhythm. I decided I wanted to have some where one part played long notes, while the other played faster notes against it. I decided I wanted to have something like a canon where they alternate (and I'm very pleased I came up with a canon, where I "halved" the notes and gave it to the other instrument, and you have to figure out how it's a canon :-). I also decided there would be some obviosu contrasts in tempo and mood between each little snippet. I also made a decision to make this part of a larger set, and, to have a little more fun with the number 10 like make all the tempos 200, or 60, 130, etc.

All of this I decided before I wrote the piece (though I had little snippets of ideas for a couple of things). After you've done all of that "pre-composition", it's kind of like "paint by numbers" at that point. I just then thought of the kind of interplay I wanted between the two parts, and the kind of contour the lines would have, and just set down at the piano and tried to "feel" for the sounds I wanted. I'd play something, and then try to imagine things like - should the next note come fast, slow, higher, lower, close, far, consonant, dissonant, etc. Then I kind of found my notes by "trial and error".

So I typically "outline" all my pieces like this - or else I find I have a nice introduction with nowhere for it to go. Now - the outline is flexible - another piece I wrote was going to be two movements originally, but I found the ideas I had for the second movement made a nice companion to the A idea of the firs movement, so my two movements became ideas A and B in one movement only. I think if you don't allow for this kind of flexibility, you can "paint yourself into a corner". Either that or it can come out like integral serialism (and I'm not too into that).

Now, I don't compose traditional tonal music. On some levels it makes things easier - for instance, I may not have to worry about finding which harmony to accompany X note. But on other levels it makes things harder - for instance, I can't just decide on a harmony and then arpeggiate to make an accompaniment figure if I'm not using traditional harmonies. But I think the idea of "plotting out" what you want to do is a very important step that people don't learn about.

And I'm not saying this is the best method for every type of piece either. Sometimes, if you're writing in a style that has an improvisatory feel to it, it might be more effective just to fiddle around until you come across something that sounds as "spur of the moment" as you want it to. And if you're writing something highly contrapuntal and plan to use inversions, augmentations, retrogrades, etc. then you need a little more pre-planning, especially on those specific things.

Another good analogy is like a football game. They don't just go out there and play. They have "plays" they've decided on before hand. Now since there's another team involved, things change, so they have to prepare for that, but they do have a basic "game plan".

Same thing if you're organizing a wedding. You've got to do some pre-planning. You can't just show up on the day and expect the cake and flowers to be there.

Now with music, I've found that some of the decisions I have to make, or the "world" in which the piece exists might need to be specific. For instance, if I know I'm not going to be able to find a great crumhorn player, I'll probably avoid writing for that instrument. If I know I'm going to get a student to perform it, I have to write at their level. If it's a pro, I don't want to hand them something a beginning piano student could play (other than a read through). So I take a lot of things into consideration - not just the composing of the piece, but it's instrumentation, possible performance, etc.

I also wanted to address more specifically what happens to me while I'm working on a piece, because I found a lot of other people share this same experience. Once I've got a basic idea, I'll often sing it (just the basic countour and rhythm, my pitch is not perfect) while driving in the car, and then I'll come up with more general ideas - like what will come next, general direction, rhythm, speed, activity, etc. That is, I'm not super specific at this point, but it's like thinking about how the story will continue, without writing down the specific words - does that make sense?

I've found that if I just think about the music - not specific notes and things but just the general "storyline" (I'm comparing it to literature here, not saying I'm necessarily writing narrative music) and I'll come up with ideas and solutions to problems in the oddest places - in the car, at the grocery store, on the throne, in the shower, before class, etc. Rarely while I'm sitting an an instrument and playing though! Then I come back later and try to take these ideas and turn them into actual pitches.

just for example, in the car, I might find after thinking through the piece, that two sections should be bridged by upward ascending notes in chordal fashion (or generically, ascending blocks of sound). Then when I get home, I sit down, look at points A and B and decide what notes to use to make that happen. If I had a 5 note spand to cover, I might try a scale, whole tones, chromatic, thirds, etc to see what kind of distance each sound needs to be from the next (or even if that should vary as it goes - bigger jumps at first to smaller jumps as we approach, etc.). I'll try to find the sound I want - open sounds, dense sounds (this is where theory (and experience) comes in handy because you know if you want open sounds, you can try 5ths or quartal harmony, and use 2nds or clusters for denser sounds, etc.) - whether they'll move parallel, or willy-nilly, etc.

That's usually how it goes.
So I hope that helps. I know methodology can be very personal, but I also know this is a subject that's not explained well a lot of places (becuase it's so hard to explain a lot of times - especially if some people are simply "inspired"). This is my experience with it. But if you (or any people who've bothered to read this far) find yourself getting "stuck" after 8 or 16 bars all the time, I'd seriously recommend making an outline, or storyline, or plot, or whatever you want to call it, and think through what you want the piece to do, and what kind of paradigm it's going to exist in. I think you'll be rewarded with compositions that virtually write themselves (not really, but it's better than continually throwing away unfinished ideas that don't want to budge - and if you do they sound forced).

Best,
Steve

This is by far the largest post I've ever seen on here

[PeterG]

Just to add a littla amateur's view on this:

Usually, but only when it's really quiet around me (very late at night in most cases) little pieces of melody pop up in my head (they try to fill the silence) and I imagine someone playing it on what ever instrument fits.
This will often invoke "someone else" to join in, a second voice, a rhythm, a bass and I will "play" (repeat) the result over and over in my head to keep it alive until I can find a pencil and a piece of paper to write it down.
Now comes that hard part as I still need to develop the skill to translate what I hear directly into notes, so I need to sit down at the piano and try to find the matching notes. This often spoils the music playing in my mind (as "wrong" notes invoke a new idea and it starts to get messy) so the best thing is to keep "rehearsing" it in my mind until it is firmly settled and I can sit down and find out what it is exactly.
For the moment I write for a solo piano only, but some of these ideas are really better for a group of instruments. Perhaps later, when I have more experience.......?

(much) Later I try to find out the matching chords and hope to see the logic in the measures; this often points out where things don't seem to be exactly right enven though the notes fit..

Does this make any sense to you?

[Thorolf]

Great, PeterG! Many more people should try to listen to their inner ear first, in my opinion. Rehearsing the sounds in your head so they don’t go away is definitely a way to find your musical self, in an uncompromizing way. Myself tend to keep literally hundreds of ideas in suspense in my head at any one time…

Regards

[LethalBunny]

How to compose?
Live life
=)
Then take a deep breath
Go to a piano
And let out all your miseries hopes and desires
And listen to what you play
And you'll find a tune

I don't really think that anyone actually 'makes' music
They just find it
Or nature gives it to them
You'll find that when you try to make an amazing song all you end up with is a terrible mess of robotic trash.
The best way to make an amazing song is listen to yourself
Let the music come to you
Not the other way round.

Also, there is a time for doing everything.
Sometimes I find that I play wonderful tunes from nowhere
When that happens, just enjoy the moment.
Then, don't do what others do, and try to find that moment again,
What you must simply do is carry on going about life as usual
And go with the flow
And the thing is
That before you know it
You will find yourself playing wonderful music again

The best way to compose is to simply learn how to make the best of a situation.
If you are stumped for ideas, here is a useful technique:
Write a song or piece of music based on being stumped for ideas!
Most people end up looking for something amazing.
And then everything they play just sounds amateur to them.
All you have to do is just.. listen.. =)

That's what music is all about..
listening..
and..
reacting..
=)

[Exen]

I sit back either with finale open, pen and paper, a violin in my lap, or at the piano and I think, what melodic shape do I want. I hum a little, though the humming isn't actual pitches I know what pitches I hear in my head and where they would fall on the staff or staves. and then I begin I go bar by bar, knowing what comes next, and before I know it I'm done.

[Stenir]

Reviewing this thread, I noticed a few people mentioned they feel they are overworking a piece. I think if it's at that point, then you need to stop and take a few days away from the piece (if you have the time, of course). Come back to it, and just listen to it if you have it on your computer, then go back and make notes.

Most importantly, take time away from it. You start to wear yourself out after a while.

[Boneman]

You guys are all amazing! All this preparation in your head etc is alien to me I am afraid. Maybe I could do with some formal instruction so that I can at least understand the big words!

For me it varies a little. Sometimes I think of a title, other times a particular ensemble/style. Mainly it is a case of sit down at the PC and see what happens.

More often than not it comes and usually in one go. I have had a dry spell but it did not last long!

It probably explains just why my music does not have the form etc that some of you guys have in your music.