Leaderboard

Unfortunately, the composer must know everything, so it seems. Orchestration, extended instrumental techniques, a knowledge of styles past and present, acoustics, notation, form and structure, electronics, etc. Melody, harmony, rhythm, tonal systems. The list goes on. Fortunately, you don't need to know all of these things before you start writing. You can start composing, and discover these elements as it comes up. Some things may not come up for a good amount of time. The hard part is not to let all of this paralyze you.

I voted for this guy (http://promoshq.wildfireapp.com/website/6/contests/318481/voteable_entries/67356018) because he seemed more awesome.

I've been reading through a biography of Brahms and came by a quote I thought appropriate for this thread: 'Another secret of [brahms'] consistently high average of quality was his contempt for mere contrapuntal ability, for cleverness in itself. "I send you the same lot of canons again," he wrote to Joachim, the crony with whom he had agreed to exchange weekly counterpoint exercises and criticism, and delinquency to be fined one thaler. "Apart from the scientific side, is it good music? Does the ingenuity lend it more beauty and value?" '"Is it good music?" All his long life he insisted with growing tenacity upon an honest answer to this query. And at the first suspicion of a negative, open flew the furnace door!' ('The Unknown Brahms', 1936, by Robert Haven Schauffler, pgs 169-170.)

More and more I'm realizing that in my own practice, 'development' should be approached as a means of getting more out material, rather than a necessary action for coherence. If you can't find something new to do with an idea, move on. You can always return later. It's surprising how much you can wander while writing before doing something simple to create an effective sense of structure.