Re: [MMM] Digest Number 406

Hi Paul,

> > However I htink it is something that has just come
> > partly from being around other people who do it - I think it is
> something that
> > rubs off. Also listening to live concerts, - did a lot of that when
> > I was at univ. and enjoying hearing the pieces by young composers
> in a very active
> > music dept.
>
> this is part of the "work" i was talking about -- listening and
> immersion.
>

Yes, sure, work sometimes is fun if you like what you are doing :-).

> > Another thing is that I used to improvise for hours on end at the
> piano
> > and I think that helped.
>
> that is, of course, another major part of the "work" i was talking
> about.
> >
> > Also just letting oneself sing / whistle when one feels like it -
> if one
> > is inhibited there I think it might make it harder. While if it is
> just
> > fun and one enjoys it, maybe that shows up in the tunes?? Loosening
> up
> > exercises of some type to release ones melodic inhibitions?? No
> suggestions
> > there as I haven't needed them. May help that I'm an amateur and
> don't
> > feel that I need to be good at it at all.
>
> excellent. yes, getting past the inhibitions can be major "work" for
> many musicians.

Yes, I think that is it. Surely everyone probably has
some kind of "music in their heart" in Jon's phrase, and
maybe some don't feel inspired to express it in music, but
anyone who composes presumably does - so then it is
probably mostly a matter of finding a way to let
it express itself.

Then at least the composing will be satisfying and fun.
Seems that some do have a kind of a gift and become the
composers that everyone wants to listen to, and if ones
aim is to become such, well maybe it can't be done by
work, just may happen as it were as a biproduct of
ones work (certainly wn't happen if one does nothing).

But, may as well enjoy composing mightn't one
and it is likely that the result will be better if
one does.

Also, once you come up with a melody, one may then
want to change it, why not! Just because it may be easy
to make up a tune doesn't mean that once you've got it on
paper you have to keep with the first thing you
thought of (though sometimes that may indeed turn out to
be the best one after the crossing out and work
when one comes back to it later).

So that is more work, but it also can be a lot of fun
too, and probably helps with making new melodies
in a more fluent immediate fashion later.

> > However, a couple of years ago I did a thing where every day i'd
> just whistle a
> > tune and write it down - one a day at least, which was fun to do and
> > may do it again. There, the thig is to just make up anything,
> doesn't
> > matter if it is good or bad, and write it down, I think will help
> > to make the proces of inventing tunes more effortless,
>
> i'm glad you agree that this kind of work can get you closer to that
> transcendent/magic state of being an excellent, melodically creative
> musician.

Well, helps one make melodies. Don't know if that is the highest
level of the art though. Seems to me that Beethoven sometimes did
a great deal with apparently very little in the way of
melodic material.

Other composers tend to use found melodies as the
starting point - think of Bartok for instance and his folk
songs, bird songs, etc...

I'm sure one can do the same thing microtonally, so that
could be a way of dealing with the situation if one is
genuinely not very satisfied with any of the melodies one
makes oneself.

Bartok or Beethoven were melodically gifted, everyone agrees,
don't get me wrong, but their styles could be of inspiration to those
who find that they make rather few in the way of singable
melodies). Like, sounds as though you need a smaller percentage of new
singable melodies per minute of composing as it were,
and some pieces may be almost entirely without any
singable melodies of any length, or they may all
be derived from folk songs etc - but in a way
that only that composer could possibly have done it,
with his individual unique and expressive style.

While a composer like say Schubert has far more singable
melodies per minute as it were - all new ones too.
Such a style of composing may provide a model or something to aim for for those
who find the process of making up melodies more effortless.

Someone might may make just one really nice melody in ones lifetime,
but maybe that will be the one that really strikes home
and expresses something of great value.

>
> > though I
> > did it rather to try to make it easier to write out the tunes
> > that I whistle, which originally was rather a slow process - the
> > technical thing of figuring out what all the notes were to write
> >down.
>
> believe it or not, even this kind of "work" is very, very helpful --
> even though the final result, of effortless creation, doesn't bear
> any resemblence to this process or even remind you, in any way, that
> you went through it.

Yes, I'm sure.

>
> > Sharing music I'm sure is a help too - listening to
> > work by other composers and the feeling of being in a community
> > of people composing using the same general materials.
> > Gradually we may learn together more about the melodic
> > potential of all these new tunings we are exploring just
> > by trying it out, and when someone makes up a nice tune,
> > maybe something in the way it happens will inspire others
> > to make new tunes of their own in related tunings.
>
> music springing from interpersonal cultural exchange always seems
> richer than music springing from a vacuum, doesn't it?

Yes indeed! I think that is the most important of all!

Robert