Good books on music composition

January 1, 2017 at 02:13 PM · Fundamentals of Musical Composition

by Arnold Schoenberg and Gerald Strang

January 1, 2017 at 03:48 PM · The Shaping Forces in Music by Ernst Toch

January 1, 2017 at 03:59 PM · I suspect that a lot of the tricks of composition aren't in the text books. This is when you've got to listen to a lot of music and follow it with a score, with a pencil at the ready. This is what any aspiring composer must do, just as student artists study the paintings of the masters in art galleries in great detail, trying to copy them so as to understand the techniques used, and successful writers will all have spent hundreds of hours reading the best books by the best authors, again with pencils at the ready for annotations.

January 1, 2017 at 04:06 PM · I thought I heard that Bela Bartok thought musical composition couldn't be taught - only learned. This link seems to confirm that. http://www.orlandojacintogarcia.com/pdfs/articles/Teaching_Composition.pdf

At school we learn all manner of stuff about language. Verbs, nouns, tenses, participles, etc.etc. But that will not actually teach you to write poetry. Similarly, a music student might study harmony books, but while these will help with analysis and understanding of existing old master works they don't immediately lead to a pupil being the next Beethoven. One textbook I found helpful was a tome by George Oldroyd, called "The Technique and Spirit of Fugue" but then I was destined for a University course on which I was expected to actually WRITE fugues in the style of Bach !!

Textbooks are "academic" and necessary for the understanding of established musical styles and will assist in gaining an ability to assess "what works". Knowledge of performance practice in whatever style you choose is essential, too. But there's no easy way of making the transition from observer or performer to creator, unfortunately.

Maybe I should read the book recommended by Raphael - but then I'd hate to end up writing music like that of Arnold Schoenberg !

January 1, 2017 at 04:16 PM · Agreed--the textbooks are about what has already been done; a composer takes the leap into the future.

January 1, 2017 at 05:26 PM · Write down what your heart says and see what happens. Composition can't really be taught.

January 1, 2017 at 06:12 PM · I second the Schoenberg book. The man was a genius and knew what he was talking about.

January 1, 2017 at 08:08 PM · I do get beautiful melodies while I dream. However, I forget the tune and rhythm after waking up in the morning. It is pathetic really.

Having listened to a lot of music from various composers, I have observed many identical elements in different pieces. The style although unique, remains constant at several occasions. For instance, let us say that you have listened to a lot of pieces composed by Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach. It is not so hard to identify the composer's name when you are given a new piece of music composed by one of the three. This applies not only to classical composers but others as well. Take Hans Zimmer for example and listen to Time(Inception), Injection(MI2), Chevaliers de Sangreal(The Da Vinci Code), A Dark Knight (The Dark Knight). They all sound very similar to one another.

I believe that the right combination of creativity, mood/feeling, compositional techniques, and knowledge of music theory can bring out the composer in you. I just don't know how to get the right balance and have no idea how to go about it.

I'll definitely look into the book by Schoenberg. Maybe that will cast light on me.

January 1, 2017 at 09:06 PM · May I draw attention to Discussion 28873 "British child prodigy's Cinderella opera thrills Vienna", that I submitted today. I suggest the link in it is relevant in this context.

January 2, 2017 at 03:35 AM · Skipping does sound like a good idea and I can't deny when she says that she never gets the melody when she's sitting down thinking about it. The ideas come to her when she is engrossed with something else. I can relate to that.

The kid is very gifted. I loved the way she played Schubert on the violin in the Ellen show. She's more accomplished than Mozart. I think she learnt the piano when she was 2, the violin when she was 3, and started composing when she was 4 years old.

January 2, 2017 at 01:34 PM · Arnold Schoenberg, the TEACHER, as opposed to Arnold Schoenberg, the COMPOSER, actually took a very traditional route in his books and college classroom teaching. He felt that you must have a solid grounding in the fundamentals first. He taught his atonal approach to advanced students who wanted it. Even as a composer, S started out in the traditional route, not unlike Picasso in his early painting. His earlier style was very late-Romantic, kind of post-Mahler. Maybe his most popular piece was the pre-atonal "Verklarte Nacht"

The book is about basics. S. was very organized and methodical. He starts with the smallest units (as I recall, having read it many years ago) such as motives, then phrases, etc. What that book doesn't do and what no such book can really do is teach you how to be creative or original. Similarly, no course in creative writing can guarantee creativity or originality. At the end of the day, either the ideas come to you or they don't. I doubt that many theory teachers started out dreaming that they might become theory teachers one day. But a good grounding can help give a creative person solidity and structure. And a good live teacher much more than a book can help guide a student.

I just did a New Year's Eve concert with a fine orchestra, whose program included Bernstein's "On the Town" suite. Besides dealing with its challenges to play, I was full of admiration for the composition. From the very first chords and rhythms I thought "this can only be Bernstein". But B wasn't born doing that. He said that the closest he came to any composition teacher was Aaron Copland. It wasn't "now you do this chord, now that motive". It was taking away anything that wasn't original and authentic: "This is no good, that sounds like warmed-over Scriabin. But these 2 measures here - those are really YOU!" Of course, not everybody can be Bernstein or Copland! And Bernstein, too, in his full maturity often struggled and agonized in his compositional work, as did many composers, such as Beethoven and Mahler. Nobody said it's easy, although Bach and Mozart seemed to belie this!

January 2, 2017 at 02:41 PM · Raphael, I second your statement that the music has to come from your heart. I agree that a well structured and organised piece is quintessential. The other challenge is to not let the pieces of other composers (the ones that you've heard) affect or inspire your new piece. This tendency can cause unwanted plagiarism. I read a couple of pages in this book and found it quite interesting. The author takes you through the concept of form, motive, construction of elementary themes, musical forms (strophic, binary etc), and ends the book with a discussion on large musical forms like the sonata-allegro and rondo forms. Thanks for referring this book. Many music theory books would not cover these valuable topics in detail.

January 2, 2017 at 04:20 PM · My pleasure!

January 2, 2017 at 04:25 PM · The Master himself, Mozart, in his KV516f devised a method of automating the composition of tunes by using dice - a revelation of his secret, or a joke? ;)

You can listen to a demonstration on this 6-minute stream:

http://www.mozart-music-system.de/mozart-turm/45c10.mp3

January 2, 2017 at 06:02 PM · Composition is like playing. Just spend 15 years working your butt off 4-5 hours a day with weekly lessons from an inspired guru with demonstrable training and experience, and voila -- you're John Williams! Or at least teaching on some leafy college campus for adjunct wages.

January 2, 2017 at 10:40 PM · One thing I would not worry about for quite some time is being or not being original. In fact, imitation is part of the learning process. See how you can make say, a Baroque or Classical sounding piece. Hopefully, an original voice will eventually develop - like one's own hand-writing. There have been some clever people who could make variations on a tune in the style of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. This can only go so far and it captures the outer trappings. I doubt that anyone could write a convincing Beethoven 17th Quartet or 10th symphony - but even that limited stylistic window dressing says something and is an accomplishment.

It's only plagiarism if you intentionally try to pass off someone else's work as your own. I wouldn't worry about that unless you're ready to publish something.