Whether you’re just starting out at composing or have been writing music for decades, improving your composing skills can help you find greater technical mastery, artistic fulfillment, and career success. Deliberately developing your composing skills is especially important if you’re not yet as good of a composer as you hope to be (which describes most […]
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A Composition Lesson from Stephen Sondheim
As both a lyricist and and composer, Sondheim was one of those rare artists whose craft and intellectual rigor were just as profound as his psychological insight and humanity. My favorite song of his is probably “Send in the Clowns” (Barbra Streisand’s version is fantastic), but “Being Alive” is a close second. Another connection I feel […]
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The Importance of Stupidity in Music Composition
Today I wanted to share with you one of my favorite articles: “The importance of stupidity in scientific research” by Martin Schwartz from the Journal of Cell Science. Don’t let its title or source put you off. It has EVERYTHING to do with the creative process. As composers, we reach a point when our teachers, […]
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Flow like Water: Developing a Professional Creative Process
Last week, I wrote about the two fluencies that professional composers must have: technique and process. Professional composers generally all achieve a baseline of technical fluency. Many, especially those in media music, also develop a reliable process fluency. Without both fluencies, you can’t be like Michael Giacchino, for instance, and take on a project like Rogue […]
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The Two Fluencies Professional Composers Must Have
All composers began as amateurs. You wrote music, with no or minimal training, because you loved it. Sure, being an amateur had its frustrations. It often took you a forever of fumbling to find the figures you imagined. But that earnest stumbling was part of the fun. In the end, simply hearing your music and […]
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Well, maybe I can write today…
Composing is not magic. It is a behavior. More specifically, composing is a collection of actions and behaviors—improvising, sketching, notating, revising, etc.—that may lead to a deliverable outcome—a printed score, a live performance, a mastered track, etc. Beneath these behaviors lie deeper motivations. Some people compose to make money. Others compose to have fun. Or […]
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Some Preliminary Notes on John Adams’s Phrygian Gates
Last week, I posted some notes about the fourth movement of Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto. As I thought further about what I wanted to do musically in my Hub New Music piece, I thought of John Adams’s Phrygian Gates. What I hear common to both pieces is a harmonic wash—that is, both pieces saturate entire spans […]
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Some Thoughts on the Fourth Movement of Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto—or, How a Composer Analyzes Music, and Why
An analysis of the fourth movement of Ligeti’s chamber concerto, which could lead to an academic article but was initially intended for creative purposes.
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Behind the Scenes on “Motion Lines,” from the PRISM Quartet’s latest album
As you may have heard, the PRISM Quartet’s latest album, Surfaces and Essences, came out this past week. I’m thrilled that my piece “Motion Lines” was on it—along with a bunch of other great music by Christopher Biggs, Victoria Cheah, Viet Cuong, and Emily Koh. First things first, if you haven’t listened to the album […]
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“What Gets Measured Gets Managed”
“What gets measured gets managed” is the quote attributed to Peter Drucker. For all that can be criticized about this idea, it’s useful to consider in composing. So let’s consider them! Here are some ways you can measure (or not) your work: 1: By how you feel about it This is the worst way to […]
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