Why do you compose?

[Classicala]

Hello,

Why do you feel the need to be a composer?

Someone asked me this question recently and I had a suprisingly difficult time answering it. I was wondering why others feel there is value in pursuing composition. Why not just enjoy great music rather than feel the impulse to create it? Any thoughts?

I told them I want to composer because I feel the need to express myself creatively through music. The response was what do I have to say that hasn't been said better before? I thought it was a good point.

[reith]

There must be as many reasons as there are people, honestly. I don't bother to ask because that might wreck the magic! I think it's for people who have things to express that can't be intellectualised hence words aren't much use.

I don't think the second point is valid because no one can express your experiences...past composers might be using the same tools and language but they're saying something (probably) unique to themselves. It's hardly different from asking someone why they wrote a novel when the world is full of novels...its because they have their particular story to tell.

[Violoncello]

I've thought often that I'd like to compose but I don't think I'm up to it yet, quite. Perhaps in time. I'd compose because I thought I had something to say in music.

[Majesty]

My actual philosophy on why I personally compose is kind of long and involved but the short answer for me is what Reith said.

I compose to express what I cannot express with words.

[Acciacatura]

I think it's fascinating that it's possible to create art from sound and I also find it an interesting challenge to express something using only sound that I probably wouldn't have in another medium. Expressing fear or joy in a painting is one thing, but expressing such things in music without the benefit of depicting anything concrete is another.

[Majesty]

Originally Posted by Acciacatura

I think it's fascinating that it's possible to create art from sound and I also find it an interesting challenge to express something using only sound that I probably wouldn't have in another medium. Expressing fear or joy in a painting is one thing, but expressing such things in music without the benefit of depicting anything concrete is another.

Very true! And I have always felt that way myself.

[Acciacatura]

Don't you just love it when you are tired and ready to go to sleep and out of nowhere here comes a great idea. I don't know if you are like me but I better get the pencil in a hurry or get to the computer to sketch the work or I will lose the idea.

[Forte]

When I'm working on something the world around me ceases to exist... I'm in a little bubble of my own. I can work for 12-14 hours a day, every day, for weeks on end, sometimes forgetting to eat some days as well.

I think part of me wants to reach out and share the music I hear with others, but another part of me is just writing the music that I want to hear. It may seem strange to others, but once I'm finished composing a piece (well, on condition that I'm actually proud of the piece) I can listen to it over and over. It's as if I'm able to write the music that I myself want or need to hear. When I think about it I find it kind fo strange, but even knowing my own piece inside out, the contrapuntal and harmonic intricacies continue to stimulate my brain. Who knows, maybe I'm writing music that is so closely rooted to my own psyche that it's causing some sort of neurological response?