Composition and Influence

The discussion about the Canadian Indigenous Advisory Council that we are having in the comments section to the Friday Miscellanea raises all sorts of interesting questions and issues. It got me thin…

Syntax vs Semantics

If you listen to a lot of different kinds of music you might notice that there are two fundamental elements. This is on an abstract level, not a concrete one. The two elements are syntax and semantic…

Over-Composed or Under-Composed?

I take my title from a favorite quote from Taruskin: The twelve-tone method was invented precisely to produce the sort of maximalized motivic consistency and saturated texture that analysts look for.…

Thirteen Ways of Looking at "Dark Dream": An Analysis

A couple of years ago I was writing a piece for violin and guitar that I ultimately titled Dark Dream . This piece went through several stages and ended up being the longest single piece of music I h…

Problems of Composition

I have read a lot of discussions of music composition, but there are certain aspects that are rarely if ever discussed. For example, there is a lot of theoretical discussion of things like harmony, m…

"Dark Dream" (2018) for violin and guitar

Dong Qichang, Eight Views of Autumn Moods, dated 1620. Album of eight leaves, leaf five I picked this painting by the great Chinese artist and scholar Dong Qichang to introduce this piece because I h…

Musical Form

Schoenberg writes in 1929: I have, above all, repeatedly pointed out the purpose of all forms : a layout which guarantees comprehensibility. I have then shown what are the conditions that go with com…

Talk on Composition

Yesterday I gave a short talk on composition. I was asked to give the presentation by a friend, Ben, who lives in a grand and rustic house in the country. Apart from a couple of friends I really didn…