How to Compose a Piece...

As a composer, I have often wondered how other composers begin writing a piece of music. As well as that, I have wondered - what is the right way to start writing a piece of music? Well, I suppose there is no right way and no wrong way, it is all down to the individual.
Similarly to writers, composers definitely understand the meaning of the phrase 'writer's block'. I suffer from this all the time. I even find that I can go for two or three months without picking up my manuscript pad or jotting my ideas into my computer. If you look through the 'Composing for Dummies' book you'll find hundreds of handy tips that will get you 'composing' in no time - (don't buy it!) Similarly, if you type 'how to compose a piece' into Google, the first site comes up with 'Tip no.1, it is crucial that your piece has an introduction, a middle section and a conclusion'. Every musician knows that this is completely misleading, as classical music has a number of different structures and forms.

When I begin to write a piece of music, it's usually because I've been sitting watching tv and heard something that I like in a film or tv score, or even because I've whistled the same phrase for days, and I can't get it out of my head - almost as if it's a sign to write it down. I used to always start a piece with a single note held for about eight bars. Now, not all of my pieces end up with this introduction, but I find it useful to pick a note, listen to it being held, and wait for something to come to mind. Sometimes I begin to hum a harmony, sometimes I get a rhythm going with my feet - and sometimes all I can do is stare at the music with no inspiration at all.

However, since I started composing choral music, I found that the most useful tool when composing is having a text. Some of the standard texts like 'ave maria', 'sanctus', 'ave verum corpus' and 'magnificat and nunc dimittis' are the ones I'm talking about. The reason they are so helpful is because it gives you half the music already, this is because of the emphasis that we put on words. For instance, the phrase 'ave maria, gratia plena' would be said: (a-ve ma-RI-a, GRA-ti-a PLE-na). This natural emphasis makes it easier to come up with a melody or a rhythm. The most basic melodic example would be:

Here, the accented syllables are represented by a change of note. As well as thinking up music in my head, I take a lot of inspiration from other composers and pieces that I like - not always being classical. However, I find that particular genres are useful when searching for inspiration in a particular aspect of the music. For example, I find film music to be the best thing to listen to for subtlety and harmony, for accurate settings of texts, I find the most useful music to be requiems or Magnificats and Nunc Dimittis' (although I strongly believe that you can pretty much find everything you need by listening to Bach!). 

The final way in which I find inspiration is by playing the piano or even the guitar. I find sitting down at the piano and playing endless chord progressions relaxing anyway, (maybe I'm one of few) but it leads you to places that you may not have thought of in your head. I would also say that other instruments would be helpful, however the piano and guitar are particularly good because they give you thick harmonies with multiple notes at a time, as well as an extremely wide range. Of course there are compositional processes for certain genres of classical music because they have to include the elements of the genre (e.g. minimalism must include repetition, addition, subtraction, cell displacement etc) but when starting off something of your own choice and style, finding the thing that gives you inspiration is all important.

I leave you with a variety of views about the subject from the pros:

'It is not hard to compose, but what is fabulously hard is to leave the superfluous notes under the table' Johanne Brahms

'Composing is like driving down a foggy road toward a house. Slowly you see more details of the house - the colour of the slates and bricks, the shape of the windows. The notes are the bricks and the mortar of the house' Benjamin Britten

'If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all' John Cage

'Life is a lot like jazz... it's best when you improvise' George Gershwin

'Every great inspiration is but an experiment' Charles Ives

'A symphony must be like the world, it must contain everything' Gustav Mahler

'Ever since I began to compose, I have remained true to my starting principle: not to write a page because no matter what public, or what pretty girl wanted it to be thus or thus; but to write solely as I myself thought best, and as it gave me pleasure' Felix Medelssohn

Karl Jenkins - Now The Guns Have Stopped

Karl Jenkins
Born 1944

For most of his musical career, Karl Jenkins has been known as a jazz musician, playing (unusually) the oboe in a jazz quintet. As a classical composer, his breakthrough came with 'Adiemus'. I chose to write about Jenkins because of his latest work: 'The Peacemakers', which is dedicated to the great peacemakers of the world such as Gandhi, Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela. However, I still believe that 'The Armed Man' is his best work by far.

With it's full title of 'The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace' the choral work is dedicated to the victims of the Kosovo crisis. A recent survey has shown that Jenkins' 'The Armed Man' is the most performed work by a living composer in the world today. I believe this to be because as well as being a work of genuine beauty and interest, the work is very accessible to musicians of all levels as the choral parts are not too challenging, and neither are the orchestral parts that accompany them. 

Most of the works included in the mass are set to typical Latin texts such as the 'Sanctus' and the 'Benedictus'. However, there are some sections in which the text is not typically religious, but instead relates more to the theme of war that is so prominent in the mass. One work in which this is particularly effective is the soprano solo, 'Now The Guns Have Stopped'. The text reads:

Silent, so silent now, now the guns have stopped. I have survived all, I who knew I would not.

But now you are not here. I shall go home alone; and must try to live life as before

And hide my grief. For you, my dearest friend, who should be with me now, not cold too soon,

And in your grave, alone.

This piece comes after the complete madness of the movement, 'Torches'. In contrast to the rest of the mass, the piece starts with slow and wistful held notes from the upper strings. In the introduction, the harmonies and rising suspensions of the strings create a chilling atmosphere that represents that of a battle. Interestingly, the strings come to a halt at 1.16 to reflect the words, 'silent, so silent now'. Jenkins even reflects the surprise in the speaker's voice on the words 'stopped' and 'not' by using unexpected chord changes. I believe this piece to be undeniably beautiful, as its haunting and suspenseful harmonies really reflect the true loss and grief portrayed already in the text. 

What has become of classical music?

This post may seem extremely cynical compared to my others, however after looking at the classical music charts, listening to 'Classic FM' and hearing 'classical music' played in the waiting room of my GP, I felt it was time to say something about what has become of society's perception of the classical music genre.
At my age, it is rare to find a peer that is at all interested in classical music (unless of course you're at an Eton Choral course or play in an orhcestra). Why is this? What has become of classical music in today's society? It seems to me that classical music is only truly appreciated by an exclusive section of society. Perhaps it is this exclusivity and snobbery that puts others off having a listen to it in the first place. Of course it is much too harsh to say that classical music is unpopular, for instance there are far more people listening to Beethoven than there were when he was alive, however when you compare it to the popularity of other popular genres, it is fighting a losing battle.
If you look at the top ten pieces in (what are wrongly called)  'The Classical Music Charts', you won't find any great pioneers such as Bach, Chopin or Stravinsky. Instead, the list consists of Katherine Jenkins, Sarah Brightman and even Celine Dion. (Yes, Celine Dion).

Here are reasons that I believe disable classical music from being spread properly throughout society, particularly to the younger generations:

1. Saturation - Pop, drum and bass, grime and club music seems to be pumped out of every single speaker that exists in public areas, whether they be in shopping mall changing rooms or the toilets in Starbucks. 
2. Gullibility - People my age seem to have the idea that being 'cool' is all important, and that classical music is 'uncool' - whatever that means...
3. Celebrity Obsession - The new reason as to why music sells seems to be because it is 'sung' (auto-tuned) by a model, reality tv show judge, drug addict or in Chris Brown's case: a wife-beater. 
4. Attention Span - Obviously starting off with something as endless as the Bach Motets would bore anyone to shreds - but it seems that to keep people interested in what they're listening to, there has to be a combination of a beat, some 'oohs' and 'ahs', a monotonous verse and a chorus built of the same phrase repeated over and over again. 
5. Modern Classical Music - Like all of the arts, modern classical music seems to be constantly trying to invent something new, something interesting. Because of this constant need for creating something different, recent music (Ives and Cage as examples) seems to be more complicated and experimental, and less accessible to the younger audience. 

But whose fault is it that classical music is not (in my opinion) as popular as it should be? Is it the fact that composers simply don't make their music accessible enough to both a musically educated and uneducated audience, or is it the lack of willingness from other listeners? 

These are some of the reasons I love contemporary composers such as Eric Whitacre and Karl Jenkins. Eric Whitacre has an enormous fan base of all ages (particularly younger people) because his music is much more accessible, and Karl Jenkins provides education for less educated musicians by writing pieces such as 'The Armed Man' and 'The Peacemakers' with appealing orchestrations and relatively easy parts.

As a composer, I hope to write music that is more accessible to a wider audience - but will always wonder if classical music is doomed to be as 'uncool' as everyone says it is.