Leon Willett
Active Member
And any suggestions or ideas on how to find the right kind of theory if I may ask?
Thanks!
I have hesitated to answer this question before on this forum, but here goes.
A composition course (a theory of how one should approach composing music) must have the following goal 2 goals:
- To take you, the composer, to the point that your music sounds exactly the way you want -- that you are your own favourite composer.
- That your composing process is easy and reliable. That you can sit down and good stuff happens, every time.
That is a successful course. A successful theory of composition.
Before we continue, can we first agree on this? Please pause and think about this. A successful composition course is about you and your music, and has nothing to do with Mozart, Beethoven, or the Pharaoh of Egypt either.
So how can a course get you to that point of quality and comfort?
Well, firstly please understand that there are 9 things that are going on in your music that make you either like it or dislike it.
In order to become your own favourite composer you need to be masterfully, comfortably, happily in control of those 9 things.
It is the job of theory to give you, firstly, a deep understanding of what those 9 things are... and then a framework within which you can practice and master them. Again: a good piece of music -- a piece of music that fully satisfies you, the composer -- is doing all those 9 things at once.
Let's look at what those 9 things are. You will need to keep an open mind, as I have had to make up some terms, since traditional theory conflates some things (has the same term for two different ideas) and misses other things entirely, which need a new term.
1) HARMONIC JOURNEY
Every bunch of pitches your piece uses (every "chord" -- but it doesn't have to be a traditional one), feels a certain way compared to the one before, and the one before that, and so on. Some feel like "home", others feel very "far" from home, some feel in between... yet others point towards a new "home"...
The way this works is not obvious, and near impossible to derive from looking at a score, in my opinion. We are talking about how your piece feels, emotionally, over the entire harmonic journey it creates. The story of chords.
Every composer needs to be masterfully and comfortably in control of this aspect, and needs to understand how to craft a satisfying journey -- in any style.
2) INTERVAL BEAUTY
Every time two instruments play a different note you get a certain flavour, depending on the distance between the two notes. The musical interval. There are bitter ones, sweet ones, cold ones, etc. And when many instruments play at the same time, you get a "soup" of many different interval flavours, all at once.
Every composer needs to be masterfully and comfortably in control of this soup of flavours, and how it is evolving over time. It's one of the 9 things you like, or dislike, about your music. Beginners make slightly random interval flavours and are numb to the effect it is having on their music, or just don't know how to fix it.
Every style of music (thriller, magical, classical, trailer this, trailer that, whatever you want) has a preference for certain interval flavour "soups".
But it goes deeper than that: control over interval flavours happens by being aware of the type of harmonic motion that is happening between the instruments (parallel, contrary, oblique, etc...). Classical music theory gets this one so radically wrong that it's shocking.
In any case, mastery over the beauty of the intervals in your music is a non-negotiable aspect of your understanding of music.
3) CONTOUR BEAUTY
This one is a simple one. You can think of contour beauty as melodic beauty, but it is more than that: the rhythmic and pitch "shapes" of all your orchestral elements, including things you think of as "accompaniment" are also included in this.
It is the management of the shape (rhythm and pitch) each individual orchestral element in your piece.
4) COMBINED CONTOURS
Here we are not talking about any individual contour happening in your piece, but the combination of all contours. The "dance" of elements if you will. This includes not only the way the contours play off each other, but also the beauty of the way the elements begin (beauty of entry) and stop (beauty of exit).
Traditionally this is learned in counterpoint, but all counterpoint courses I have seen completely miss the point, including all famous books on the subject (including Fux). It is about controlling the "dance" of various elements, and how that "dance" is hitting the listener. The combined contours in your piece.
...and every composer should be masterfully and comfortably in control of this "dance" of elements. It is one of the 9 things you either like or dislike about your music.
5) POETIC CHARACTER
Poetic character is the reason to chose one instrument (or combination) instead of another. This includes also the specific range on the instrument(s) (or synth -- whatever).
A melody in could be played by anyone in the orchestra. Play it on a solo french horn, in the middle range, and now it has a noble, proud quality. Play it on 3 trumpets, loudly, in the low range, and now it snarls nastily. Play it softly in celli and basses and now it is brooding and stern.
You must be happily and comfortably in control not only of the poetic character of each element in your piece -- but also the combination of all poetic characters that are active in each moment of music.
Noble + soaring + lyrical. Shimmering + mysterious + brooding.
Combined poetics. Get it?
Incidentally, beginners look to this aspect of music for deep emotional impact, where they should be looking at number 1 on this list, first. They bring in the loud percussion and brass, but have not travelled harmonically. Like shouting and screaming about a story that has already been told.
6) ORCHESTRAL "EQ"
The point of octave doublings. Totally missed by all orchestration books I have ever read, including Rimsky, Adler and Piston. When you double something at the octave, you are making it brighter, or warmer, or deeper, or more present (mid range). It is the orchestration equivalent of an EQ plugin.
At every moment of your music, there is a certain distribution of pitches going on, provoking a certain EQ signature.
You either like that signature, or you don't.
You need to be masterfully, happily, and comfortably in control of this aspect of your music. Typical mistakes here include muddiness where it wasn't intended, or brittleness (brightness without warmth) that wasn't intended.
7) BALANCE
The more instruments that play a particular pitch, the fatter it gets. Some instruments are fatter than others. One of the things you, the composer, cares about is how fat or thin each pitch in your piece is. This is one of the points of unison doublings (the other point is combining poetic characters -- number 5 in this list).
You need to be comfortably and masterfully in control of the fatness of each pitch in your piece. Too thin, or too fat, will both not please you.
8) BLEND AND SEPARATION
The elements of your piece should sound blended, or separate from each other, according to what you want.
With bad blend and separation, you will have things disappearing (that you want to be heard), and things sticking out (that you didn't intend).
Good blend and separation is achieved by managing the combined timbres of the instruments (or synths -- whatever) playing at a given time, their combined contours, and the EQ of the different elements. For example if an element has the same timbre as another, but the contours are very (rhythmically) separate, you will still achieve separation. If the timbres are different, but the contours are identical, you will still achieve blend in most cases. If the timbres and contours are the same, but the EQ is radically different (one is deep, and the other bright, for example), they will still sound separate.
Getting into the technical part here a little too much perhaps, but the point is, again, that you need to be happily and comfortably in control of this aspect of your music, or you will not be satisfied.
9) SUBJECTS
A subject is a musical idea that, if it came back later, the listener would recognise.
It is the musical equivalent of a character in a movie.
Usually, subjects are melodic themes, but they needn't be. Again that definition: a musical idea that, if it came back later, the listener would recognise.
They can evolve over time, stretching, fragmenting, simplifying, complicating themselves... But not too much, because if they are unrecognisable, then the point was lost.
Beginners have no subjects, or too many subjects, or don't develop them enough, or develop them too much (unrecognisably)...
Like main characters in a movie, the subjects of your piece are very important to you -- whether you understand the dynamics of how it happens or not -- and you should be masterfully, comfortably and happily in control of this, as you make a piece of music.
...continued below
Last edited: