how I compose

> From: <xed@...>
> To: <crazy_music@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2001 8:03 PM
> Subject: [crazy_music] This 'n that
>
>
> For that matter, Joe Monzo, why don't you give us a detailed
> step-by-step description of how you compose your music?

Well, I promised a while back that when I got the chance
I would do this, and I finally have a bit of time for it.
Here goes...

I start out by cutting out all of the musical illustrations
from the original 1911 edition of Schoenberg's _Harmonielehre_.

Of course, I don't use the actual book for this purpose, but
instead make xerox copies, and put the scissors to *them*.
As "the most devout Schoenberg cultist on this tuning list"
[mclaren post to crazy_music, Monday, July 23, 2001 12:19 AM (PDT),
Subject: Censorship, totalitarianism and Schoenberg], I would *never*
desecrate the sacred _Harmonielehre_ scriptures in such fashion!

Then, I mix all the cut-up musical illustrations in a *big* box
(Schoenberg put 346 examples in _Harmonielehre_), and pull
them out one at a time, arranging them in piles of 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 pieces each. As both a JI Moonie
[mclaren post to crazy_music, Sunday, July 15, 2001 12:45 PM (PDT),
Subject: JI moonies and modernist musical Branch Davidians]
and numerologist [my own admission], I must respect the sacred
numbers of the harmonic series up to Schoenberg's expressed limit
of 13, which was also a sacred number to him. (OK, here I take my
tongue out of cheek... this bit is actually true.)

After forming four sets of these (four are necessary,
because there are four elements and four directions on
the 2-dimensional surface of the earth, thus respecting
the ancient wisdom of the Sumerians), there are 6 examples
left over, which form a neat additional set of 1, 2 and 3.
These 6 examples form the basic motivic themes for the piece.

Thus, all the musical examples have been arranged in sets
whose cardinalities express the sacred harmonic numbers of
the holy overtone series.

At that point, it's an easy matter to simply assemble
the musical examples one after another in the order in
which they were pulled out of the box, each of the four
sets forming the source material for a section of one of
my compositions, and all of them tied together by use of
the material from the 6 basic examples.

Of course, since His Ultimate Holiness Arnold Schoenberg
actually composed all of the music himself, my pieces are
all in strict homage to him.

Hope that helps everyone understand how I work.

:-P

-monz
http://www.monz.org
"All roads lead to n^0"

_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @... address at http://mail.yahoo.com