Questions tagged [composers]
Composers is a tag that describes questions about individual composers and their works. For matters of composition itself, see 'composition'.
0
votes
3answers
61 views
To compose music, do you have to be able to hear?
I am asking this question out of sheer curiosity. Ludwig van Beethoven was deaf but still made some amazing songs. Just like Beethoven, do your ears have to work normally (Like not deaf), to be able ...
1
vote
0answers
64 views
What did Ligeti mean by 'shimmering effect'?
Stephen A. Taylor, Chopin, Pygmies, and Tempo Fugue: Ligeti's "Automne a Varsovie", Vol 3.3., Online Journal of the Society for Music Theory.
I looked up 'shimmering' on ODO. David Bruce explains ...
3
votes
3answers
151 views
Combining forms to make a new musical form
Has there ever been a composer between Baroque and early Romantic periods (within piano literature) who created a new form based on a combination of previously separate forms into a new iteration or ...
-1
votes
2answers
87 views
Is it possible that Beethoven (after turning deaf) “heard” all of his symphonies in a different key? [closed]
According to this article on cmuse.org,
Even though Mozart is the only Western musician and composer who was explicitly acknowledged as having perfect pitch, Bach, Händel, Chopin and Beethoven are ...
1
vote
2answers
334 views
minimalist compositions [closed]
Thanks for all the responses. It struck me that the work of Reich and Glass was/is mathematical in arrangement. If LaMonte Young and Terry Riley started the movement on the coast then Reich and Glass ...
-4
votes
2answers
150 views
Why did Chopin copy so many of Beethoven's works? [closed]
Chopin has copied SO many of Beethoven's works in his own pieces. Here are some examples:
1
vote
1answer
63 views
Who did introduce the mediant keys in to music harmony progression?
Which composer(s) introduced as the first time mediant chords and mediant keys in their compositions - or in which period the use of this kind of modulation was coming up?
-2
votes
3answers
120 views
Is Aram Khachaturian a classical composer? [closed]
He doesn't SEEM to be like Beethoven, Chopin, etc.
4
votes
3answers
2k views
are there piano pieces where the hands play in different keys?
Do you know music for piano where the two hands don't have to play in the same key?
1
vote
3answers
92 views
Distinguish music devices: Sequencer, Launchpad, Sampler, Synthesizer
I've been having a hard time figuring out function of these below music devices:
1. Beatstep sequencer
2. Launchpad | Ableton Push
3. Sampler
4. Sequencer
5. Synthesizer
For example, if I use ...
1
vote
0answers
87 views
How to describe unmistakable similarity in two Andrew Lloyd Webber songs?
So, I'm a very elementary music student with a theatrical background, and I want to ask a professor about what I hear as a very marked similarity between a couple of songs from different Andrew Lloyd ...
-2
votes
1answer
83 views
Interesting cord progressions for piano? [closed]
Self-taught pianist here...
I've been playing piano for almost a year now and I've been making up my own compositions. Recently, I feel like I've hit a plateau in regards to style. All of my ...
-1
votes
1answer
304 views
Who composed “And the Waltz Goes On”? [closed]
I listened to "And the Waltz Goes On" played by Andre Rieu's orchestra a while ago, in the video Andre say it was composed by Anthony Hopkins and never have been played until he did so in Vienna, but ...
1
vote
1answer
78 views
Has anyone else composed for the Mahler Hammer?
The title pretty much sums it up: Has anyone else (other than the composer for whom it's named) written music that incorporates the "Mahler Hammer™"?
Some more links:
Walt Martin's blog about ...
2
votes
1answer
82 views
Single composer sheet music book — name on each piece?
It seems that whenever there is an album (book of sheet music) and all the pieces are from a single composer, the name is not repeated with each piece.
I wonder, is this a strict rule? Especially, ...
14
votes
6answers
4k views
Why do music directors use keyboard (or similar) instruments for composing music?
I have seen that most of the film music directors use keyed music instruments for composing music. I hardly saw directors use other instruments like strings or wind instruments for the same. What ...
12
votes
1answer
3k views
Why is Debussy's remark brilliant (on going out and smoking, at the start of Beethoven's developments)?
From: Charles Rosen. Critical Entertainments. p. 117 Bottom - 118 Top.
In the same way, attacks on Beethoven could be profound and even persuasive, and would continue to be so after his death ...
-1
votes
2answers
129 views
Industry Standard for Psychological Mapping of Emotion to Musical Keys
I have found several references to map a key to a psychological feeling or psyche archetype. Is there an industry standard for musical scoring?
2
votes
0answers
163 views
How much math did Iannis Xenakis understand?
Paul Griffiths wrote on 2011 Feb 5:
Iannis Xenakis, the Greek-French composer who often used highly sophisticated scientific and mathematical theories to arrive at music of primitive power [...] ...
0
votes
1answer
174 views
How much math did Pierre Boulez understand?
David Schiff MM (Manhattan School of Music, 1974), DMA (Juilliard, 1979) labels him mathematician:
I would propose a different model of Boulez's career: the typical trajectory of a mathematical ...
0
votes
1answer
77 views
How does ignoring the math behind Xenakis's cacophonously dissonant music, affect your reaction to it? [closed]
I enjoy, and have no problems with:
Xenakis's tonal pieces (Six chansons pour piano), or inharmonic pieces with percussion (Pléïades).
most (Post)Modernist composers like The Second Viennese School, ...
1
vote
0answers
133 views
Why did Ligeti write a melody for the horn, if he believed melodies forbidden in modern music? [closed]
Please inform me of any textual evidence or transcript of Ligeti for this quote:
This piece reminds me of a lecture I heard Gyorgy Ligeti give on his woodwind quintet. He wrote a melody for the ...
1
vote
2answers
200 views
Can one's musical ‘ear’ be trained with practice and dedication? [duplicate]
These great composers of the past: Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and my personal favourite Elgar, all lived in a time where they had only a piano to work out their various symphonies ...
3
votes
1answer
101 views
Messiaen Prelude Colors
According to wikipedia, each of Messiaen's 8 preludes is associated with various colors.
1 La colombe (The dove) Orange, with violet veins.
2 Chant d'extase dans un paysage triste (Song of ...
0
votes
1answer
68 views
Piano finger apparatus in history or film
Can anyone recall the movie where a piano player was using an apparatus to strengthen (or stretch) their ring finger. I keep picturing AMADEUS but i can't find references. If not, does any one know of ...
1
vote
1answer
114 views
Missing works by Sylvius Leopold Weiss
I recently heard the Chaconne in G minor by Weiss, a guitar transcription, and started looking about/for it. According to Wikipedia it seems that it is part of a full Sonata in G minor but even though ...
0
votes
2answers
134 views
Recommendations for composers of romanticism [closed]
I'm trying to explore the romanticism era especially in german classic. So far I have come across composers such as Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Carl Maria von Weber which I'm really fond of.
Are ...
4
votes
2answers
307 views
Do there exist contemporary composers writing in the style of Viennese classical music?
Do there exist known contemporary composers who work in the style of the so-called Viennese classical period, and if so, who?
2
votes
2answers
126 views
New technology being studied or developed to record the song in our heads?
As composers we sometimes imagine a whole song with drums, bass, guitar, keys and vocal melodies in our head, but usually in the process of composing we sometimes lose what we were thinking.
Is there ...
5
votes
5answers
947 views
How do composers get their works performed?
How do composers (professional or not) get their works performed by orchestras and soloists?
While we're at it, how and where do composers publish their music and where do orchestras/musicians/...
1
vote
3answers
1k views
Getting the piece out of your head
Many have noticed, I guess, that when you make up a song in your head you can hear many aspects, lots of instruments, different melodies and sometimes create a full arrangement.
Most of this can lead ...
3
votes
3answers
886 views
Copying yourself
I hear David Gilmour copying his own riffs and melodies and solo parts and harmonic parts and etc all the time. Things he did for Pink Floyd now reflect in his On an Island, About Face and Rattle that ...
3
votes
2answers
625 views
Deja-vu composers
I'm having trouble with composing music sometimes. The problem is that i very often feel that i'm copying someone, somebody's melody, harmony, rhythm, chord progression or arrpegio. I think many ...
5
votes
3answers
242 views
What is the earliest instance of a composer/theorist publishing an analysis of his/her own music?
In the final chapter of his Harmonielehre, Arnold Schoenberg analyzes a brief passage from his own compositional output. (You can find it here, on written page 418 [page 432 of the PDF].)
I'm looking ...
7
votes
3answers
4k views
slur options in sheet music
In sheet music to put together consecutive notes the composer writes a slur. There is two kinds of slurs one whole line the other broken. My question is: When does a composer use a solid line slur, ...
1
vote
2answers
992 views
Double Harmonic (Ultraphrygian) Examples [closed]
Around 2 years ago i accidentally discovered Phrygian #3 #7 while jamming and found out with some research, that it apears to be called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_harmonic_scale. Since then ...
4
votes
5answers
919 views
What's the correct term for a 'professional' composer?
The orchestra I play in is planning to commission a piece of music for our 50th anniversary concert in 2017. We've commissioned music in the past, and had music written for us, by amateur composers. ...
3
votes
4answers
248 views
Which keyboard works - beside Bach's - are part of the study curriculum *and* regularly performed in public?
Bach has written a huge body of keyboard music that ranges from "easy peasy" (Anna Magdalena) to "inhuman" (the ol' prelude & fugue).
A significant part of it is both popular with public ...
10
votes
2answers
9k views
(Post)-minimalist compositional techniques
I was wondering if anyone out there knew of any techniques associated with the minimalist tradition. I've been really interested in the philosophical notion of minimalism over the last few months or ...
25
votes
11answers
10k views
Where do musicians draw their melodies from?
It has been in my head for so long.
I am a visual artist, animator, I do motion graphics, 3D artwork and most of my work is done visually.
I am puzzled by this question.
Visual artists, they draw ...
7
votes
1answer
291 views
Iannis Xenakis' Artistic Aesthetic and Public Perception
Did Iannis Xenakis write any music with intentions beyond absolute music? For example, music paired with other forms of art?
For example, Terretektorh (diagram pictured below) illustrates that ...
24
votes
4answers
6k views
As a composer, should I be composing music for an instrument I don't play?
I wanted to know if composing music for a specific instrument demands that you know how to at least play the instrument. I'm sure if you know how the instrument sounds by itself as well as within an ...
3
votes
1answer
746 views
The Swan of Tuonela: Sibelius, Wagner, and Smetana
I was very much impressed by the clarity of expression and romantic beauty of Jean Sibelius' 1893 The Swan of Tuonela as performed by the Gothenburg Symphony under Neeme Järvi and as featured on ...
4
votes
2answers
4k views
How to distinguish between piano music by Beethoven and Chopin?
What are some musical characteristics that can be analyzed to tell if a piece of music was written by Ludwig van Beethoven or Frédéric Chopin?
Both are unmistakably present in the concert repertoire ...
27
votes
9answers
4k views
Is there any way to improve composing?
Beside playing drums I'm toying with software to create music. The problem is when I need to advance further. I may have some good, let's say "riffs" (or pieces, or melodies, or ideas), and I'm pretty ...
3
votes
1answer
393 views
Who was the first composer to notate a trombone smear?
I've been listening to Henry Fillmore's "Trombone Family". It brought me to thinking, how long have trombone smears been around in written sheet music? Was Fillmore, a.k.a. "Father of the Trombone ...
36
votes
12answers
4k views
Appreciating the music of J. S. Bach
I have been learning piano for many years and am able to really enjoy the music of Beethoven and Chopin. However, when it comes to Bach, I must shamefully admit, I can't see why he is held in such ...
