# method of composition



## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

All you composers out there, how do you compose? Do you do sketches first? Do you do piano reductions and then orchestrate? Do you need to be in a particular place or frame of mind? Do you have a composing routine or just start writing when the muse hits?


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I've heard so many young people say start with a melody / start with a chord sequence that I thought I should kabosh those two before they slipped in as 'advice.'

No, you do not wait for 'a mood' - you write: if you want to be any good at something it must be done regularly and repeatedly, true of any skill.

My 'Sketches' are pretty directly toward the finished bar, with only a few tweaks along the way. I am / was a pianist, decent enough to play reductions of orchestral pieces I am working upon. The one thing to avoid if you are a pianist is letting motor habit of typical pianistic configuration creep into your instrumental writing, which, generally, is best left idiomatic' to the instrument for which it is written.

If for instruments, I draft a 'particell' score, i.e. three or four staves separating the material for the various instrumental groups, and from that, still use the piano and play it as a reduction. Think in instruments from the inception, or you will have a piano piece which you have to 'cleverly' orchestrate - and those, even by experts, often sound just like that.

I wish I could say I wrote more regularly now; I did, and now I don't. If I hadn't done it regularly -- and a great deal of that included if it was 'just an exercise' -- I wouldn't be able to write at all effectively or without extraordinary effort when I do sit down to write - there is a huge difference between something done enough to become habitual and intuitively reflexive which may have a bit of rust on it compared to no built up habit or reflex plus rust. The first has you 'prepared if inspiration strikes' the second has you scrambling for basic techniques to command while the idea / inspiration slips further away.

For a while, if you are at all earnest, even to be 'a very fine amateur composer' then you need a routine, like going to any other job. Right after grad school I sat at the keyboard, manuscript paper, pencils, pens, erasers at hand, and wrote something from 9a.m. till noon break, then continued on till about five - admittedly about half that time was 'playing through' and trying out other variants or new ideas, but I was 'at the office' on a regular basis, including weekends.

If you have nothing in immediate inspiration, imagination, grab a familiar folk tune, tune only, and give it a fresh harmonic spin. Ditto for a hymn tune or anthem. Arrange some existing piano piece for an instrumental ensemble, or visa verso, make a piano reduction of an instrumental piece. Take the kernel of an existing theme or some harmonic device from a piece and make an exercise / piece of that.

Whatever it takes, write, and daily, and that for some years if you want to be at all able and creditable.

I've forgotten which TC member has cited the Picasso quote, but it is so apt and true I repeat it here.
"Inspiration happens, but it must find you working."

P.s. May as well add Stravinsky's retort to the question did he need to be in a particular mood to compose.... "Moods are for girls."

P.p.s. You do not need a method to compose, but you are best off working at it methodically


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

First of all I wouldn't really describe myself as much of a composer. I really wish composition came easy for me. I do however have a few compositions I am moderately pleased with, however creating this music was a slow painstaking process. The only way it has worked for me in the past is to actually record a lot of ideas using a digital recorder, and then listen back to the many different musical segments and then try and piece the few things I am pleased with together in different ways until I come up with a satisfying result. I haven't tried to compose anything in years, as I found this process quite draining.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I seem to need to have finished a high enough percentage of the pieces that I've started before I can really move on. I'm not particularly disciplined at this stage, and its still a mystery to me as to how I can do it sometimes and others can't. When less 'inspired' I can write more bland or disorganized sounding lines, but usually I don't notate very quickly, and if it tends too much towards one extreme(bland or chaotic sounding) I won't remember it. One of these days, I may feel the need to take it to the next level, but for now, I'm proud of what little I've done. So far I've only written piano pieces.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Sibelius 7


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

PetrB said:


> P.s. May as well add Stravinsky's retort to the question did he need to be in a particular mood to compose.... "Moods are for girls."


I love Stravinsky, and I appreciate some of the sentiment of that retort, but I don't appreciate the sexism in it.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

Since pretty much everything I have written is chamber music (or electronic music), I write directly for the instruments I want to use. I tend to use multiple instruments in the composition process, usually piano. Sometimes I improvise on the instrument to brainstorm ideas, which I then expand upon on paper. It all really depends on the piece. I tend to select compositional techniques and materials based on the subject of the piece, the character of it, and what I think would best accomplish that. Most of my pieces thus far try at various different techniques, because I am still a student and learning.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Anything anytime anyplace for no reason at all. Words to live and compose by.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

Crudblud said:


> Anything anytime anyplace for no reason at all. Words to live and compose by.


I think I probably take it all a bit too seriously at times X3


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

BurningDesire said:


> I think I probably take it all a bit too seriously at times X3


When I take things too seriously they don't get done at all because I lose all interest in them.


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

I have a routine, however due to circumstances out of my control I can rarely keep to it, and even when I can it leaves undesirably short amount of time for composition, as I still need to study it.

Usually, however, I start by improvising at the piano, or with an idea of what the piece I want to start will sound like. Hopefully an idea will come from improvising which is suitable. Alternatively I have a good idea and fit the overall piece around it, but the former is more common.

With a main idea, the remainder comes with a combination of working at the piano and working through the score. This latter is mostly using sibelius because I see no reason not to use the sounds it gives as an indication of whether something's any good or not. Also it is quicker to use software than manuscript, and I can't be bothered to copy things into the computer after writing them down, or rather I have to but it seems a waste of time. I use manuscript to work through my theoretical ideas however (e.g. thematic relations) because it is much freer. Mostly, nothing I write down is really ever final until I have to finish the piece.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

Crudblud said:


> When I take things too seriously they don't get done at all because I lose all interest in them.


That is so true! :lol: For me anyway.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Crudblud said:


> When I take things too seriously they don't get done at all because I lose all interest in them.


Stay in earnestness, and there's just no room for seriousness to creep in. No one has ever been accused (or found guilty of) being too earnest


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

I am totally self learned so i just usually come up with few themes/motifs and just start to write. Usually i have some sense were i want to build up the climax etc... but sometimes i just write.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

drpraetorus said:


> All you composers out there, how do you compose? Do you do sketches first? Do you do piano reductions and then orchestrate? Do you need to be in a particular place or frame of mind? Do you have a composing routine or just start writing when the muse hits?


Do it the easy, avant-garde way. Start with a concept, talk about it and then come the sound. Or if you run out of concept, just make up any noise.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> Do it the easy, avant-garde way. Start with a concept, talk about it and then come the sound. Or if you run out of concept, just make up any noise.


A fine demonstration of your formidable knowledge of the processes of 20th Century composers


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