# Should i have chosen to study composition or conducting?



## Gustav Mahler (Dec 3, 2014)

Hello everyone,
Today I had to choose between studying for a degree in composition or conducting, 
and i've decided to choose conducting even though I am more of a composer)-Do you think i chose wisely?
Let me tell you the advantages in my opinion:
*Conducting is a technique that you must be taught. Of course that you must know how to compose-To know about forms, harmony and counterpoint. Those things I already learn while I study conducting (Conducting and composition students have the same courses, Except for the private lesson with the conducting/composition teacher.)

*A composition teacher may alter your inherited style by influencing you with his own taste. He may also encourage you to abandon tonality, And I am against it (I like modern music, But tonality can't be replaced. It's different)

*You pay the same amount of money for both, And with conducting you get a lesson with two pianos and a conducting teacher, So if I decide to study composition privately it won't cost as much as paying for two pianists+teacher.

*My conducting teacher was the conductor at the finals of the Arthur Rubinstein piano competition, So you can guess he is quite a good conductor.

What do you think about my choice?
Do you know a great composer that has taken this path?
Also, Do you think it is necessary to study composition when you already know about form, harmony and counterpoint?


----------



## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

Maybe I shouldn't write this message as I have a completely different background. The only common thing is that I love music so much. 
I think you did very well, choosing conducting considering the data you presented. That could also, indirectly help you if later you chose to go more into composing as you may have a better knowledge about how an orchestra works, and your influence as a conductor. I wish you to be able to conduct your own compositions. I am so happy you like tonal music. Touches of dissonance could sound nice, but too much use of it may ruin a piece. That's only my taste and it has nothing to do with the common modern trend. 
Good luck in your musical career!


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I would suspect that conducting provides for a great way to study and learn composition. There have been many great conductors who were also composers. Perhaps the main problem conductors have is that to make a living they have to be very busy conducting, which takes precious time away from composition. In order to make a living as a composer, one likely finds a job that is less demanding than conducting and then works on his composition on the side. Of course, there are those who are born to be composers -- artists with in-born talents of creation in sound. It is one thing to learn techniques of musical composition; it is quite another to have real musical ideas.

In any case, all the best to your in your chosen career. Keep making music, however you do it.


----------



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Composition should come first, it is the first true test of musical comprehension.


----------



## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Gustav Mahler said:


> What do you think about my choice?


Well, really none of us can answer that question because none of us is you.
But seeing as you asked, I would have thought that people get degrees in conducting because they want a career as a conductor, and that if they want to be composers this might be something of a waste of their time.



Gustav Mahler said:


> *A composition teacher may alter your inherited style by influencing you with his own taste. He may also encourage you to abandon tonality, And I am against it (I like modern music, But tonality can't be replaced. It's different)


I have no idea what goes on in a degree course in composition, but presumably by the end of it you will be sufficiently skilled to compose tonal music if you want to, regardless of your teacher's personal preferences? And, you know, people change over the several years they spend in college; you might be converted, and grateful for it!


----------



## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

I do not know.

If you are in the US, conducting would probably be the best course. If you are living in Europe or Asia, I have no idea. It may be different there.

Frank Ticheli, the American Composer, made an excellent video on composing in America:


----------



## wzg (Jun 17, 2013)

Nice to meet a musician here! Your nick reminded me Gustav Mahler is a composer and conductor 
I'm not very sure, but I think if you prefer working with the masterpieces, like the Mahler symphonies, do conducting; if you prefer writing your own, do composing... Sadly I'm a science student, doing music electives only...


----------



## Gustav Mahler (Dec 3, 2014)

Thank you very much for your input. A lot of interesting material.
I was assigned to conduct Mozart's Jupiter symphony next week , I am off to read it on the piano! (I also have to practice the 2nd movement of the Linz symphony for score reading lesson).
Any more opinions and stories would be appreciated!


----------



## wzg (Jun 17, 2013)

Gustav Mahler said:


> I was assigned to conduct Mozart's Jupiter symphony next week , I am off to read it on the piano!


Wanna see you working...


----------

