Introduction to classical music composition. Learn compositional concepts like repetition, variation, and elaboration, and concepts like harmonic progression, voice leading, and texture.
Things to learn:
- Voicing of chords, voice leading of root position chords, and texture types.
- Inversions of chords, keyboard voicing
- Commonly used sequential progressions.
- Chord substitution commonly used harmonic progressions used at the end of a phrase (called cadences)
- Use of chromaticism to enable modulation to new keys
- 2-voice counterpoint.
7 Tips from a Modern-day Classical Music Composer
Modern-day classical music composer Cristina Spinei (a Juilliard School graduate) recently released her debut classical music album. Here are excerpts from her recent interview where she reveals why she likes classical music and also shares useful tips on classical music composition.
Cristina studied ballet as a child, took piano lessons, and has been composing since she was 9.
“I’ve always gravitated toward it, although I love jazz and Latin music, too. I like writing instrumental music, as I am not good with words. I knew I would never be a singer-songwriter. I can’t sing, so that is out of the question. And the structure of a standard or pop music is so formulaic. It feels confining, and I don’t particularly see myself being inspired by that,” says Cristina.
- Even in the era of digital music, a record signifies a milestone — a sense that one’s music is part of the classical canon.
- You can make classical music appealing to people by getting younger musicians and composers to attract their peers (from other genres as well). Performance spaces such as Le Poisson Rouge in New York City have been successful, allowing contemporary classical music to rub elbows with indie rock, jazz, new and avant garde music.
- Classical music has its own set of rules (and a lengthy history) but there’s always room to innovate.
- You learn your craft first (technique, history, theory and orchestration) and then you go off and do whatever you want with it. You have to know what each instrument is capable of (they all have their own idiosyncracies) before you really write for it.
- Classical music involves keeping track of the changes of tempos and rhythms, the layers of sound from multiple instruments and their complexities (these are not typical features one finds in folk, jazz or pop.)
- Classical music compositions for today’s audience should incorporate traditional orchestral compositions combined with innovative work of the present (something that is hard to categorize).
- Music composers nowadays should get comfortable with social media and online promotion.
Spinei loves blending traditional music with the new, as co-founder and collaborator of the musical collective Blind Ear. In its interactive concerts, the composers create the piece at the time of the performance, using software, laptops and WI-FI to send the work, as it is being written, to the artists who are performing. Set up in front of monitors, the musicians must adjust quickly, and at times are encouraged to improvise. Imagine Mozart having super-human speed, so that he could write out notes, distribute the sheets to his musicians and make changes even as they were playing. But the innovation can flow both ways. Spinei took one of these “real-time” pieces and formally notated it into a permanent piece for strings, which also is on the album.
Full story: ctpost.com
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