# pretty underrated composer, me thinks: Andrew Shapiro



## BrendanCoker87 (Oct 16, 2020)

My sister --her taste is NOT usually my cup of tea-- sent me this piano piece "Mint Green" yesterday.

And I haven't been able to stop listening to it. It's on repeat at my office as I do my work. But I stop sometimes and just sort of zone out or melt into it. I don't understand why it has the grip on me that it does.

I was reading about the composer, Andrew Shapiro, and it seems like he's sort of known, but not very known. I wonder if others have come across this piece/composer and like it/him?






I don't know, is it classical? or neo-classical? or Emo or ambient? Maybe it doesn't matter.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Minimalism, Ambient, New Age or a combination of either to me. I don't see him as a composer, except in the most generic sense really, more a songwriter/musician to me. It's quite evocative and moody (maybe since it's similar to some movie music, I can picture kids riding bicycles in some green rural or suburban area), but I just can't view it as being a composition.


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

Phil loves classical said:


> I don't see him as a composer, except in the most generic sense really, more a songwriter/musician to me.


Not arguing about the music's merits, but a songwriter _is_ a composer.


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

Portamento said:


> Not arguing about the music's merits, but a songwriter _is_ a composer.


Not really. A composer is someone who writes music (as in, wites scores). Most songwriters do no such thing; it's like saying a campfire storyteller is a novelist.


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

BachIsBest said:


> Not really. A composer is someone who writes music (as in, wites scores). Most songwriters do no such thing; it's like saying a campfire storyteller is a novelist.


A composer is an author of music, and the idea that writing the music down makes it any more "composed" is silly. There is a ton of craft that goes into songwriting, which makes your campfire storyteller comparison a bit disingenuous.


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

Portamento said:


> A composer is an author of music, and the idea that writing the music down makes it any more "composed" is silly. There is a ton of craft that goes into songwriting, which makes your campfire storyteller comparison a bit disingenuous.


No. I could have said "master-storyteller" and the point would remain. I didn't say songwriting involved no craft, just that it was different from composing.


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

BrendanCoker87 said:


> My sister --her taste is NOT usually my cup of tea-- sent me this piano piece "Mint Green" yesterday.
> 
> And I haven't been able to stop listening to it. It's on repeat at my office as I do my work. But I stop sometimes and just sort of zone out or melt into it. I don't understand why it has the grip on me that it does.
> 
> ...


Returning to the OP, I hear Mint Green as minimalist/pop in the Philip Glass line. There are classical aspects but it's not neo-classical. I don't know enough about Emo or ambient to comment, but it does matter -- does anyone know?


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

BachIsBest said:


> No. I could have said "master-storyteller" and the point would remain. I didn't say songwriting involved no craft, just that it was different from composing.


Was Schubert not composing when he created Winterreise?


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

Lisztian said:


> Was Schubert not composing when he created Winterreise?


I'm not sure what you mean. Of course, he was. I never said that one couldn't compose songs; I was taking songwriting to mean writing the lyrics and coming up with a couple of chords to play. The average songwriter of today does not write musical scores for their songs. If they did, then I would consider it composing, just like if an oral storyteller started writing down their stories one could start considering them a writer.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Sound cloud has dozens of this kind of music, they all imitate each other.


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

BachIsBest said:


> Not really. A composer is someone who writes music (as in, wites scores). Most songwriters do no such thing; it's like saying a campfire storyteller is a novelist.


Either way - it says nothing about the quality of their respective art.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

It's not that the music is bad, but...


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

BachIsBest said:


> I'm not sure what you mean. Of course, he was. I never said that one couldn't compose songs; I was taking songwriting to mean writing the lyrics and coming up with a couple of chords to play. The average songwriter of today does not write musical scores for their songs. If they did, then I would consider it composing, just like if an oral storyteller started writing down their stories one could start considering them a writer.


Oh I see.

I disagree though. I definitely don't think writing a score is required for composing. I see composing simply as creating music, no matter the method.


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