What are we composing for?

Robin's method there is really one of the best. I've personally done this myself, but in the modern music sense. I have a bunch of good friends who play various instruments and I write for them to play/etc. I know I'll get a performance in essence because it's well, it's a dedicated piece and we're all pretty good friends so it works out.

It's not so hard to go and meet people who can play your pieces, but of course it's more of a personal relationship thing and not "Well I need a pianist or I wouldn't be talking to you" cuz that's just mean. :/

PS: Plus if your friends are cool you'll get a lot of feedback since good friends don't tend to hold back criticism LOL. :>

Why do I compose?

Well, I've read everyone's responses to this, and they're all very good reasons to do it, much better than my reason for composing. I wish I could STOP composing. Really, I do. I could be happy having money and a "real job", but NOOOOO, I had to be ambitious and decide that I was going to be the next John Williams, Andrew Lloyd Webber, or Mr. Holland. Funny how that worked out for me... because I'm none of these.

Truth be told, I compose because if I don't, eventually my mind becomes cluttered with different musical ideas that just occupy my brain to the point that I can think of nothing else but those ideas. I've been doing this for years, first actively when I started learning how to compose, then unconsciously after years of study. Composing, at least for me, is like taking a very big, massive poop.

Music and I, we have a very dissonant, love-hate relationship. I hate it when I'm composing a piece, but I love it when I have the final product. I could care less if someone performs it, I just want it out of my head. No joke.

Originally Posted by Antiatonality

Composing, at least for me, is like taking a very big, massive poop.

O.o...

...

Never thought of it that way...

I compose becuase I love it, whether or not I can get a performance, but I also compose with the aim of writing something that my high school orchestra teacher will aprove for a concert...

Originally Posted by Antiatonality

Why do I compose?

Well, I've read everyone's responses to this, and they're all very good reasons to do it, much better than my reason for composing. I wish I could STOP composing. Really, I do. I could be happy having money and a "real job", but NOOOOO, I had to be ambitious and decide that I was going to be the next John Williams, Andrew Lloyd Webber, or Mr. Holland. Funny how that worked out for me... because I'm none of these.

Truth be told, I compose because if I don't, eventually my mind becomes cluttered with different musical ideas that just occupy my brain to the point that I can think of nothing else but those ideas. I've been doing this for years, first actively when I started learning how to compose, then unconsciously after years of study. Composing, at least for me, is like taking a very big, massive poop.

Music and I, we have a very dissonant, love-hate relationship. I hate it when I'm composing a piece, but I love it when I have the final product. I could care less if someone performs it, I just want it out of my head. No joke.

I absolutely know what you mean. You've described my love-hate relationship with music, as well as my psychological yearnings for composing (aka, addiction >_< ), to the proverbial tee. It does feel good to have used up all the musical ideas that have been cluttering my mind. It's quite a release. I've never compared it to defecation, but I know what you mean. ^_^

Originally Posted by MatthewSchwartz

I absolutely know what you mean. You've described my love-hate relationship with music, as well as my psychological yearnings for composing (aka, addiction >_< ), to the proverbial tee. It does feel good to have used up all the musical ideas that have been cluttering my mind. It's quite a release. I've never compared it to defecation, but I know what you mean. ^_^

Yeah, just wait until your mind starts filling back up with ideas again. It happens more frequently and more rapidly the more you listen to music.

And the reason I compare it to defacating is simply put: I never get what I want, and it's for the smallest reasons I can never pinpoint (otherwise, I'd get what I want - ahh irony).

Anyone have any suggestions for advanced tonal harmony reading that I can be looking into (preferrably on a free website somewhere)? I've been looking around here, but all I seem to be able to find are mostly things I already know. It's just a pain in the ass to fumble my way through the harmonies I want to use. There's got to be a better way.

WHy do I compose? Well, I have had long periods where I never wrote a note and my "composing" was limited to extemporizations on the piano. Yet when I was a little kid before taking any piano lessons and all we had was a crappy little upright that was one of the things I wanted to do - compose. But strangely it was for my parents. A little like QC said, I compose for other people (or an imaginary audience if you will) because I enjoy communicating to other people in music and as SSC said some of these things I find words and gestures sometimes cannot communicate -- and even this is imperfect. But it feels good in the end.

Lastly, I realized late when I began studying composition seriously these past few years starting well into adulthood that I thrive on composing for other people and with a strucutre (eg a particular form, group and deadline) -- I love the collaboration and learning and borrowing performers excellent ideas and making them my own as well as hear what other composers like myself do. Otherwise, I tend to collect many incomplete ideas and eventually stop. Maybe it is the level I am at.

It is a timely question for me because with the loss of my day job recently I wonder if I should continue serious study at the school I studying composition this past year (it isn't cheap). In the end, I figure I need to (I mean I actually do enjoy doing counterpoint exercises and ear training as an alternative to composing!) -- there are too many opportunities in life to do the things you have to or only feel half-assed committed to, why not carve some time of life with a few things you truly enjoy.

I compose to get rid of excess creativity that gets clogged in me. So composition for me is a way to release creativity in a fun safe and enjoyable matter. Now do I wish my works to be performed? Well heck yeah I do, but I'm sure that not everyone will. So what I say is to build up your repetoire slowly..start off small, have a piano composition performed. Perhaps someone will like it and have a quartet performed..and then an orchestral work and etc. Personally I think that is the best way to go, you can't just go up to a symphony orchestra and say..hey perform this symphony for me. I'm sure it doesn't work like that. But anyway..I just compose for my enjoyment

Originally Posted by Romanticist

Personally I think that is the best way to go, you can't just go up to a symphony orchestra and say..hey perform this symphony for me. I'm sure it doesn't work like that. But anyway..I just compose for my enjoyment

It's likely to be rejected, yes, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. It can't hurt you, and who knows, if the person in charge really likes your piece they just might do it. But you might consider first which orchestra to approach. Not all are equally fond of taking risks or supporting young composers. Generally, the bigger they are and the more they depend on making money, the less likely they'll do it.

But sometimes you just need the courage to do something a bit crazy.

To get back again on the main topic, when it comes to composing I think for most composers it's some sort of compromise anyways. On one extreme, you could just write solos for the most easily available instruments, not too hard but still good enough for showing off the abilities of the player, not too long, etc. It will be rather easy to get people to play your pieces like this, but the question is whether with all these restrictions you can still truly do what you want, musically, or whether you're just prostituting yourself. On the other extreme you might write music that conforms entirely to your musical visions, but which is unplayably hard, requires huge quantities of rare instruments and lasts ten hours, but you probably will never actually hear your music nor will anybody else.

Usually it's something in the middle, sometimes leaning more to one, or the other side. You might for example write with the definite intention of getting it performed, but still require good performers, use uncommon techniques and will require time, effort and money to perform. Or you might write without the definite intention of getting a performance, but still write everything so it could be performed, if someone was willing to do it. Personally, I'm facing the question of practicability versus "musical vision" quite often. For example, currently, while working on my piece for three pianos, I'm trying to decide whether to retune some select strings of the pianos. On one hand I'd really like to do it and I could better put into effect what I want, but on the other hand I don't really need it, and it will make getting a performance quite a bit harder (many institutions, including my conservatory, are rather strict about preparing their pianos and they usually only have a single one that you can prepare/retune). A compromise would be just requiring a few keys of a single piano to be retuned. And at the same time I'm pondering whether I need a conductor for the piece or not, and if I want to do it without one, how I could simplify the rhythmic organisation to make the coordination possible.

I compose because I feel a need to write music. I personally don't feel like I am "communicating" anything to the audience; I am just moving particles in air. As for composing for people, I enjoy writing for actual people, and the writing is more personal and meaningful knowing I am doing that.

However, I feel just as content writing something I anticipate will never be played, and I write just for the sake of enjoyment of composing (however stressful).

To Matthew Schwartz: Like Charles Ives, people can write music, shelve it and feel happy just by getting it out. Sometimes dots on a page are all I need.

I compose for myself as if I'm writing a diary. its not for other people to see. its just for myself to express.