# How long do you spend a day on your composition?



## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

I usually go till I run out of ideas, then quit for the day, which is probably why I don't write very much, how do the rest of you work on your music?


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

A lot less than I should.


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## opium (Dec 15, 2011)

Hardly any time anymore.

A few years ago when my knowledge of theory was poor, I could compose for hours daily. Now that I know a lot more, I feel that I find it a lot harder - but when I do it's far more rewarding.

Next month I've taken on a challenge to write 8 things. Most likely metal pieces, but they've to make use of chromaticism. So hopefully in a few weeks I can come back and say that I'm back to composing for at least 2 hours daily.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I'm not a routine person, so I work whenever for however long.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I go through creative bursts. In 2010 for two weeks in September I composed for almost seven hours every day and finished the first act to my opera "The Death of Osiris." Recently I've been spending about ... maybe three or four hours some days and less than half an hour other days writing the sketches to my sixth symphony. Although I have to write a sonata for clarinet, double bass and banjo soon. I'll probably write the whole thing in eight or nine hours so I'll spend the day doing that.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Well, sometimes _forced_ creative bursts when I have to write something that I really do not feel like writing but manage to write it all out very quickly if that makes any sense at all (which it doesn't....)


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

When I _really really really_ want to write something based on a terrific idea I would have just come up with I'd usually write the piece very very quickly. For example: my best ever orchestral work "Eight Pieces for Eighty Musicians." My parents kept on telling me that I had other things to write but I went off, did my research and wrote those eight pieces. I am actually very proud of that work. Probably one of the finest things I have ever done.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Actually if I was to rank my ten best works it would probably be something like this:

1. Cataract 3/Yon (see link in signature)
2. Eight Pieces for Eighty Musicians
3. Alone (song for mezzo-soprano, flute, violin and piano)
4. Piano Quintet (also in signature)
5. Piano Sonata no. 1 (first mvt in signature)
6. The King's Horn
7. String Quartet (original 2009 version)
8. Tales from Outer Suburbia (cycle of chamber compositions not yet finished but some of the works I might say are some of my best (except for the one included in my signature))
9. Trio Sonata no. 2
10. The Death of Osiris


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

when I'm inspired, all the day, all the week. Usually, in this kind of periods, I can finish a piece, and get started some others until some new inspired period. So, I work by periods. In these inspired periods, the work is pretty intense, sometimes, I don't eat and I don't sleep very much. Otherwise (in the non-inspired time), I only play the piano, maybe my finished pieces, or some other pieces of the famous composers.


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