# Composing Mood



## MelloHero

Hi all,

I've got a quick question for everyone. Do you ever compose when in a bad mood? Stressful or upsetting situations inspire people plenty, but do you find it best to compose after you've had a chance to relax a bit? In what situation do you compose the best music? What's different?


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## MelloHero

In other words, what's YOUR favorite composing mood?


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## jani

Yeah i compose on a bad mood, but even when i am happy my angry/sad stuff sounds angrier/sadder when i am happy.


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## aleazk

I compose my best music (if what I do can be called that way) when I'm in a bad mood.


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## MelloHero

That is interesting. I've had a little piece of music I've been looking at off and on for over a year now, adding to whenever I felt like it, and I notice that the parts that sounded the best were the ones I did when feeling rather hopeless or upset. That may be the nature of the piece specifically, but I just wondered if I was doing a good or bad thing (my last composition lesson was years ago).


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## Kopachris

Yes, I do. When I'm in a bad mood, I'm more willing to experiment and throw caution to the wind when composing.


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## StevenOBrien

The more negative my mood is, the more dissonant my music seems to be. When I'm depressed, everything can sound really imperfect and just completely wrong, which is really frustrating.


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## Ramako

I like best to be fairly calm when actually composing - no matter the mood of the piece. I normally get all my irritation or sadness out on improvising, though I may remember some of the ideas. Besides, if I like what I'm writing, no matter how depressed I was, I soon become happy.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

When I compose I _get_ angry. When I was in a bad mood to begin with I can usually write some amazingly lively music.


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## Ramako

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> When I compose I _get_ angry. When I was in a bad mood to begin with I can usually write some amazingly lively music.


You get angry when composing? Do the notes annoy you?


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## jani

Ramako said:


> You get angry when composing? Do the notes annoy you?


I bet that Beethoven felt annoyed/angry when he composed because he sometimes altered passages like 20 times etc...
But that's Beethoven is so great he never gave up until he found the only possible right notes what can happen at the moment.


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## Ramako

jani said:


> I bet that Beethoven felt annoyed/angry when he composed because he sometimes altered passages like 20 times etc...
> But that's Beethoven is so great he never gave up until he found the only possible right notes what can happen at the moment.


Even Beethoven must have felt good though when he wrote the opening to the fifth, ninth, and all that other fantastic music.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Ramako said:


> You get angry when composing? Do the notes annoy you?


It's usually the eraser's fault.


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## PetrB

Without wishing to literally go with the following quote, I agree with its import: 
Igor Stravinsky was asked if he needed to be in a particular mood to compose. 
His answer: "Moods are for girls."

I think moods are for amateurs and dilettantes - professional or not, if you want to really write, you have to write regularly, and then like any job, you may not always 'feel like it.' It is work to which you have committed yourself, and that work makes its own demands.

If you invent / find a decent musical idea and shape it, it will be expressive of its own character and interest. Music is that neutral, and that powerfully 'expressive.' 

I believe writing music is not anyway an appropriate vehicle for direct 'self-expression.' 
If you want to personally express yourself, write words, not music.

That brilliant quote by Picasso cited as a sort of logo by another forum member comes to mind here, 
"Inspiration happens, but it has to find you working."

Struth....


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## Ramako

PetrB said:


> Without wishing to literally go with the following quote, I agree with its import:
> Igor Stravinsky was asked if he needed to be in a particular mood to compose.
> His answer: "Moods are for girls."
> 
> I think moods are for amateurs and dilettantes - professional or not, if you want to really write, you have to write regularly, and then like any job, you may not always 'feel like it.' It is work to which you have committed yourself, and that work makes its own demands.


I think I agree, however I normally suppress most feelings before I start composing. I disagree in as much as sometimes a powerful emotion can find an outlet through composition (often improvising an idea). Their emotions become the business of a serious artist of whatever kind, not to be ignored, or to be slavishly followed, but used in the service of their art.



PetrB said:


> If you invent / find a decent musical idea and shape it, it will be expressive of its own character and interest. Music is that neutral, and that powerfully 'expressive.'


Yes. I get tired of telling people that [insert composer name here, usually Beethoven] probably was not always expressing the sufferings of his heart.



PetrB said:


> I believe writing music is not anyway an appropriate vehicle for direct 'self-expression.'
> If you want to personally express yourself, write words, not music.


Here I disagree. While not all music should be self-expression, it is, I believe, a valid artistic aim. There is nothing superior in words for self-expression, indeed, they are quite inferior when it comes to expressing emotion I think, though possibly just because I am more of a musician than a literian(?). Still, I have found that my music often expresses some sort of emotion I felt at the time (often unconsciously).

Self-expression is not just like Tchaikovsky's 6th. I sometimes find that some of the most powerful music (some of my all-time favourites) somehow express emotions that I feel every day, but express them, or rather utilise them, in a most extraordinary way.



PetrB said:


> That brilliant quote by Picasso cited as a sort of logo by another forum member comes to mind here,
> "Inspiration happens, but it has to find you working."
> 
> Struth....


A very happy quote. Hard work is the key.


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## jani

PetrB said:


> Without wishing to literally go with the following quote, I agree with its import:
> Igor Stravinsky was asked if he needed to be in a particular mood to compose.
> His answer: "Moods are for girls."
> 
> I think moods are for amateurs and dilettantes - professional or not, if you want to really write, you have to write regularly, and then like any job, you may not always 'feel like it.' It is work to which you have committed yourself, and that work makes its own demands.
> 
> If you invent / find a decent musical idea and shape it, it will be expressive of its own character and interest. Music is that neutral, and that powerfully 'expressive.'
> 
> I believe writing music is not anyway an appropriate vehicle for direct 'self-expression.'
> If you want to personally express yourself, write words, not music.
> 
> That brilliant quote by Picasso cited as a sort of logo by another forum member comes to mind here,
> "Inspiration happens, but it has to find you working."
> 
> Struth....


I disagree with that and so does Sibelius and Beethoven etc...

For example:
I find that Beethoven 14th piano sonata is highly self expressive, specially the 3rd movement ( yea i know that the name moonlight wasn't given by Beethoven)
But after you know why and to whom he wrote the work you start to understand, i can give you my own analysis what Beethoven wanted to say with that sonata if you want.


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## jani

jani said:


> I disagree with that and so does Sibelius and Beethoven etc...


For example:
I find that Beethoven 14th piano sonata is highly self expressive, specially the 3rd movement ( yea i know that the name moonlight wasn't given by Beethoven)
But after you know why and to whom he wrote the work you start to understand, i can give you my own analysis what Beethoven wanted to say with that sonata if you want.

PLEASE DELETE THIS POST!


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## StevenOBrien

I actually agree with Picasso. It's a great vehicle for indirect self-expression and can say so much that words can't, but writing a blog about something that happened in my life feels much more "releasing" than writing music that may or may not be influenced by whatever happened.


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## Ramako

With deliberate self-expression you say what you want to say: without it, you say what you never knew you had to say


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## jani

StevenOBrien said:


> I actually agree with Picasso. It's a great vehicle for indirect self-expression and can say so much that words can't, but writing a blog about something that happened in my life feels much more "releasing" than writing music that may or may not be influenced by whatever happened.


Well i depends about the person, music engages my emotions and imagination much more than Books& Visual art.

"If I could express the same thing with words as with music, I would, of course, use a verbal expression. Music is something autonomous and much richer. Music begins where the possibilities of language end. That is why I write music."

Jean Sibelius


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## MelloHero

jani said:


> "If I could express the same thing with words as with music, I would, of course, use a verbal expression. Music is something autonomous and much richer. Music begins where the possibilities of language end. That is why I write music."
> 
> Jean Sibelius


That sounds a lot like Mahler, too: "If a composer could say what he wanted to say with words, he would not bother trying to say it with music."


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## Pizzicato

I must always to be happy to compose. When I'm in a negative mood my head feels to cluttered to compose.


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## etkearne

I am usually in a regular old mood when I compose, since I start at 10:00 am and end around 4:00 pm, and nothing usually ticks me off at such a blasé time of day. If I am truly upset about something, it is usually in the evening for some reason! So my composing time is over. Composing for many hours per day exhausts you by 4:00 p.m, so I don't go back to the drawing board.

But perhaps I will next time I get irritated, just to see what will occur...


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