MUSICAL COMPOSITION
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When you study music, the most important thing to learn is Strict
Counterpoint.
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Writing variations is something good for the beginner.
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Usually the best ideas flow from the hand or mind without any particular
effort, these are the ideas that will endure in your compositions.
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Never begin working the out of a composition before the whole thing has taken
definite form as an outline either on paper or in your head. When ideas come
to you, go for a walk, then you will discover that the thing you thought
was a complete thought, was actually only the beginning of one.
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In the sonata form, the piece must have a logical structure. It is not enough
to have a good idea here and there. The sonata is not when one has merely
combined several ideas through the outward form of the sonata, but that,
on the contrary, the sonata form must emerge of necessity from the idea.
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When you are composing a piece, your bass should be vibrant, not sleepy or
lazy. Your harmonies should sing and not be weak.
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Harmony should not only be the accompaniment of the piece, but help and allow
the idea to develop, so to speak, to help it emerge clearly and powerfully.
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In regular composition, and song writing, the determining role of the melody
and of clearly perceived basses created in good counterpoint should be a
must.
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When you examine a piece, read only the vocal line separately and or the
bass separately, so this way you can see if your melody is dreary or your
bass boring. The determining role of the melody and of clearly perceived
basses created in good counterpoint should be a requirement. The accompaniment
should be a equal, even independent, element and sometimes to move it canonically
in relation to the voice. The canonic form never develops into the controlling
element, but only as a means of increasing the charm of the vocal melody.
And the melody will always break the form when its powerful and sublime flow
so dictates.
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Combining variety (diversity) with unity can be difficult. It is accomplished
by transforming the basic motive more or less recognizably through rhythmic
alterations; through displacement into other chordal inversions, and through
exact or retrograde inversions, thereby you create themes and melodies of
the most extreme contrast.
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Extension of the subsidiary motives can be done by means of augmentation.
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To compose a long adagio is the most difficult of all.
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Unified modulation does not in any way preclude the use of even the most
distant keys. Quite the contrary these keys become distant only by virtue
of the fact that another key governs; this is what gives them their expressive
power. They say something different; they are like the colors of a painting
that contrast with the background color and are simultaneously contained
and intensified by it.
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To learn modulation imitate the masters. If Beethoven, Mozart or Haydn go
from C Major to E Major, you do the same. In regard to the overall course
of the modulation, with the exception of the individual divergences, the
guiding principle is "The straight path is the best path".
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You must learn how to work. You must write a lot, day after day, and not
think that what you are writing always has to be something significant. As
far as songs go, you will write many songs before a usable one emerges.
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It is rare that a piece, once it has been completed, becomes better through
revision; usually it gets worse.
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You should not always trust your ideas. The pen is not only for writing,
but also for deleting. But be very cautious. Once something
has been written down it is hard to get rid of. But if you have come to the
conclusion that it will not do; even if it's good in itself- then don't think
about it for long; simply strike it out! How often one attempts to save such
a passage and thus ruins the entire thing, not to mention becoming a slave
to the idea instead of being the master. Sometimes passages like this also
serve to conceal the troublemaking elements whose presence you might have
intuited but would have not looked for it there at all. Corrections usually
should have to do with particular details of the composition.
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Clearly imitation is the best way to understand how music is written and
structured. A beginning composer should follow the methods of composition
which are set by the masters like Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, etc,.
This way you can understand the structure and apply this to your own work.
Every composer takes ideas from other composers, its not that your going
to use that idea note for note in your piece. On the contrary, it's the way
you manipulate or change the idea and develop it, which reveals the genius
in a composer and his composition. When you compose, it is good for a beginner
to copy or follow a particular structure of a piece or a style of a composer;
this way you can discover how a composition is created or constructed and
apply this to your own ideas. By doing this you will eventually break out
of that mold and with a clear understanding develop your own style of composition
or a ingenious variation of an older one with unprecedented new insight.
Compiled from Brahms
and His World by Walter Frisch.
Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
ISBN 0-691-09139-0 [Cloth] / 0-691-02713-7 [Paper].