# Which style do you normally compose in?



## pendereckiobsessed

So it has been mentioned by a few people on the composers forum that the composers here have a variety of styles that they compose in. So what style do you mainly compose in? Could be the neo- genres, the Avant Garde styles, or somewhere in between or even something completely original.

My style (at the moment) is somewhat a mixture of Bartok, Shostakovich, Carter,and some Scriabin. So I would fall close to the Avant Garde styles.


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## Praeludium

Don't know. I don't actually even think about this  It's not "avant-garde", for sure (and unfortunately I'd say). I write for the instrument in a very traditionnal way because it's the only one I know ): That's something I'd like to change.
My influences : anything I like/discover.


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## StevenOBrien

Tonal, diatonic and neo-classical.


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## aleazk

lol, I don't know, I use everything I like, from Ravel to Ligeti, Jazz, etc. I'm constantly changing the style. I get bored very quickly working continuously with the same style. I change to another style, and then I go back to the previous style, lol.


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## clavichorder

The short winded style. The sky is the limit under 2 minutes.


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## Ramako

I like composing in a musical style...



I don't want to categorize myself, or limit myself even in one composition (unless it's a deliberate pastiche exercise), but rather follow the dictates of my ear, heart and mind.


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## etkearne

I generally write in a neoclassical form with rich harmony from the extremely extended tonal idiom (that includes that of people like Bartók). But I try to keep form rather rigid.


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## PetrB

clavichorder said:


> The short winded style. The sky is the limit under 2 minutes.


Don't worry... almost every young(er) composer has the problem, which gets 'solved' after you have written more, more and lots more.

Too, some are more by natural inclination 'miniaturist,' even their larger works 'not symphonic' but cohesive series of movements (the Baroque, better ballet scores, opera composers.)

Others have inclination / knack for larger structures. Some composers have been categorized as both, Stravinsky, for one.

György Kurtág had such a personal distress over composing only pieces of episodic movements and songs that he sought out psychiatric help to work it through. He reported that in the therapy, he was told, (paraphrased) "Well, maybe you're a fine miniaturist, and maybe that is enough"

You will find out 'later' where your strengths lie.


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## drpraetorus

I tend to have three styles. One is fairly straightforward romantic. I don't use this as much. mostly for audiences that would have a hard time with harder edged music. Next would be music that tends toward atonalism but without being strongly disonent. Lots of quartel and quintel harmonies. Seconds and Sevenths spaced so as not to produce the strong disonence but still have the proper effect. My third style is what I call my Black Room music. It is strongly disonent and uses driving rhythms or cross rhythms, extreme instremental ranges, lots of percussion. Some people find it creepy or erie. Some hate it outright.


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## BurningDesire

I am sort of in a stylistic crisis, trying to develope my own voice while reconciling very different ideas about how music is made: Romantic and Modernist, clean and noisy, classical and rock, academic/structured and intuitive/improvised. I want to develop a Romantic sound that is my own, and isn't corny, and isn't simply a reference to other great Romantic composers like Tchaikovsky and Chopin. I am interested in exploring diverse kinds of writing.


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## Renaissance

Tonal, mostly diatonic, but also use some chromatic stuff, with all kinds of harmony, even quartal harmony at times. But lately I try to compose in a more traditional style, e.g. stuffs with 4-part harmonic frameworks, old voice-leading techniques, modulations. I really need to learn something about musical forms, when the time will allow me. I still have so much to learn.


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## WavesOfParadox

I'm too much a beginner to have my own style developed, but anything I do always turns 20th century.


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## WavesOfParadox

I can say that right now I have an unnatural obsession with serialism.


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## jani

My themes are usually built from short motifs/motif.

That's all i can say really.


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## ScipioAfricanus

My style= mediocre


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## etkearne

I am actually even more reassured now that I am primarily neo-classical in form. I looked at all the works I have been giving Opus Numbers (just the assigning of them is classical enough...) and they all are written in strict formats. My Opus II was called "Etudes For Solo Piano - Book I" which is a pretty classical form despite the extremely modern harmonic structure within. Opp. I, V, and XIII are all in strict Sonata Form. 

And all of the other ones are either the first pieces which I just called "Suites" but were in fact very classically arranged and not Romantically so. And the more recent ones not in strict classical form are experimental type pieces with strange instrumentation such as my "Music For Electric Piano, Two Electric Guitars, and Electric Bass" which I am currently working on. But the rhythm guitar plays strict counterpoint almost constantly...so...pretty neoclassical.


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## MatthewWeaver

Well i began writing music improvising on street corners.
I think by nature, such music can naturally be innovative, because of its connection to the person through which it comes out.
When I write a note on the staff paper today, I still retain that connection, and I feel my music is unique because of it.
Style = Me

Ofcourse I have my influences, I love Bartok, Messiaen, Ravel, Debussy, Ives, and so on, but I dont imitate them. Im inspired by them. They took materials that they were influenced by, and creating new ways of conveying sound, and at the same time they effectively expressed themselves through it.


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