# Writing music for a woman?



## Manok

I've been toying with the idea of writing something for someone who I like a great deal, and was wondering what advice people might give?


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## AmericanGesamtkunstwerk

a #11 on a major chord will let her know that you've experienced great emotional pain, but you're able to see the beauty burning through it.


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## Rasa

Write serial dubstep.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Does this person play an instrument? If so, compose for that instrument. If she doesn't play an instrument, compose a complicated contrapuntal piece of music for a large orchestra.


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## Sid James

Some music written for women by male composers -

Mahler's Adagietto from Sym. #5
Beethoven's Fur Elise
Wagner's Siegfried Idyll

I think the pattern is that these are lyrical and poetic pieces. Doubtless there are more examples. Of course they're either from the 19th century, or early 20th century in case of the Mahler, since then women's role in society has changed a great deal.

A more recent one is the french horn theme in the slow movement of Shostakovich's Sym.#10, this spells out this lady's name, who helped Shostakovich get through some of the horrible times he had during the Stalinist regime. Here a quote from the wikipedia article on this work -



> ...At concert pitch one fifth lower, the notes spell out "E La Mi Re A" in a combination of French and German notation. This motif, called out twelve times on the horn, represents Elmira Nazirova, a student of the composer's with whom he fell in love. The motif is of ambiguous tonality, giving it an air of uncertainty or hollowness...


I think Schumann also did this with his wife's name, Clara, in his Sym.#4, effectively a celebration of their marriage (or marriage to be?).

Then there's Janacek, who wrote many pieces with his muse in mind, Kamila Stosslova...


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## Sid James

& of course there's serenades, loads of them, many would have been written with women in mind. Eg. the cliche of wooing a girl with your songs under her balcony. That kind of thing. Schubert's serenade (standchen) is a popular one, but there are many other good ones, in instrumental form, art-song, from opera, etc...


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## paulc

Why not buy her some flowers?


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## Manok

I could, and probably will at some point lol. I don't know if she plays anything. I don't think so she doesn't have a lot of free time. I will ask the next time I get a chance. My instrument was piano, and she has never heard me play before so I thought that might be fun.


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## aphyrodite

Pulling off something along these lines maybe:


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## Crudblud

Write a Stochasti-seria-canto-spiel-stück for her.

What? What do you mean "that's not a thing"? Honestly, just how uncultured _are_ you people?


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## chee_zee

you can only learn so much intellectually for this kind of thing. I'd say get your composing technique to a certain level, if it's not that great and you feel you must immediately write this for her then fine...but to write for someone, that's more a matter of the heart than intellect. fur elise is a prime example of this. listen to epilogue for lisa by shawn lane as well. familiarize yourself with jazz chords and what they sound like in various orchestrations, let that be the key to your expressiveness. if the structure is simple then it allows for complex harmony and orchestration etc, if structure is complex then might limit those other things and make them more repetitive. check out aitake sho chords from japanese gagaku. all about expressiveness.


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## AmateurComposer

Manok said:


> ... she doesn't have a lot of free time.


Hi, watch out! Will she have enough free time to date you?


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## Meaghan

Well, the fact that she's a woman doesn't really give us any idea what kind of music she likes; we'd need to actually know something about her to make useful recommendations, and then you'd probably be able to judge better than we would anyway. It's a nice idea, though. If a guy wrote music for me, it would definitely score him points. This was a month ago, so I assume you've made some decisions? Did you write her something?


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## Manok

Not just yet. Lets just say there are complications at the moment and leave it at that. I'm still thinking over how best to approach such a piece anyway.


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## Jeremy Marchant

Manok said:


> Not just yet. Lets just say there are complications at the moment and leave it at that. I'm still thinking over how best to approach such a piece anyway.


I suggest keeping it simple and short. This means that you are likely to give it your best shot, you won't spend months doing it (the implication of spending a huge amount of time possibly not going down well with her), and it is more likely to appeal to her. If you play the piano, you could write for that, so you can perform it for her.

When I did this many years ago I was a member of a choir and I wrote an a capella setting of a WH Auden poem which I then persuaded some of the singers to perform in a private performance.


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## regressivetransphobe

Compose a traditionally masculine piece and then discuss the shortcomings of western heteronormative standards with her.


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