"Hymn Without Words" last week. I've tried to be even handed, but
no doubt it'll seem controversial
-Nigel
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Each composer will have his or her own process to move from first concept to final work. The trend of these processes has seen a marked change over the last few years with the cheapness and availability of personal computers and recently the growth of aids to the modern composer. Broadly, these fall into two categories:
· Composition software: which helps composers write and check music, e.g. Cubase, Noteworthy Composer;
· Typesetting software: which allows the composer to produce professional quality scores and parts without the expense of a professional typesetter, or to suffer endless rejection notes from publishers who haven’t even opened the envelope of submissions, e.g. Finale, Sibelius.
Many packages straddle both camps. Finale, for example, has play back facilities that help to verify the notes on the score and Noteworthy Composer can produce basic scores.
When talking to some amateurs their over reliance on computers has led me to wonder how they thought Beethoven coped. The advent of these packages has aided the amateur who may not otherwise try their hand at composition. This process should be applauded. But it has happened at what price? Such composers often lack the ability to hear the score in their head, their works are often produced by an iterative process of trial and error and therefore often sound formulaic – that is that they lack the sparkle of originality. Using only computer software will not nurture this needed ability for the budding composer and conductor alike.
When playing a score, a computer has no input to the musical process. It faultlessly and effortlessly plays the music, which I believe removes an important part of the composition process: the feedback from performer to composer. Aside from the technical problems, for example all notes are played perfectly however unsmooth and unrealistic the line, the interpretation of the music has gone.
When a performer runs through a piece of music for the first time, many composers prefer to stand back and listen. If the tempo is wildly different from the marked, a good composer will not blame the conductor. Instead, they ask themselves questions such as “has this interpretation given a new insight that I as a composer have missed?” and “is the interpretation poor because I did not make my expectations clear on the score”. Computers don’t inspire these questions. I have even improved works because a performer’s error has produced better music!
The procedure I recommend has five stages:
1. Create the melodic and harmonic framework at the piano
2. Produce a short score using Noteworthy Composer (does stage 1 work in context?)
3. Produce a long score (orchestrate the work) by hand – feeding back to stages 1 and 2 if I don’t like what I hear in my hear
4. Typeset the score using Finale – playback to check for grammatical errors
5. Rehearse with a band (if you don’t conduct a band and your conductor is not keen on playing music by members of the band, the Internet is a great tool for finding bands that are more helpful – http://www.bandsman.co.uk/bb-links.htm) - feeding back to stage 4 and possibly stage 2.
Do not think that I am a technophobe, or believe that I believe that the older methods are always the best. I have a degree and a post-graduate diploma in Computer Science as well as a degree in Physics and I do not look to the past with rose tinted spectacles. The argument here is that the PC is a useful tool and has its place, provided that it is the tool not the master and is used in addition to the more conventional techniques.
I propose that these five steps are the right compromise between the traditional musician’s ability that must not be lost to the over dependence on modern technology; and opening the fun of composition to new composers who would otherwise lack the formal ear training to have the confidence to compose. The suggestion is that composers of traditional and acoustic music in the second camp consider adopting the Five Steps of Composition discussed here and don’t lose their flair by losing their originality and ability to the computer.