How Committed Are You To Your Compositional Style?

Interesting thread. I took your question of style to mean the methodology of how you compose music, not the various forms the methodology will produce over time. Those will necessarily change, and that is good. Otherwise music would be like plumbing and not like art. So, we all have our journeys with bridges to cross, and new musical problems to solve. Since I have loved and practiced  many musical idioms, I can pull out well traveled road maps to produce music of different forms of length, instrumentation and "style" and by style I mean classical, pop, vocal, long, short, sad, peppy and the like. But these are only maps. The road must be traveled and my technique helps me get there. They are interdependent, and I would put the exact same care into each. And that's all anyone can hope for.

Srtravinsky always composed at the piano. When he delved into tone rows, did that change? Was it necessary to even hear the music anymore? Maybe someone can answer.

Re: pateceramics' mention of  Newtown's adventurous experimentation is noted. He was more than adventurous, he was downright  risky with his own life. He put needles between his eyelids and his eye - to test the limits of pain? Qualities of light? I can't remember. It's in his journals.

Me, I experiment with how 3/4 time and 6/8 time can be used to throw a listener off for fun. Conductors too!

 

Qualities of light, I think, Ken.  Trying to figure out if the light was somehow made in the eye, or inherently there and perceived in our eyes?  Can't remember if this was before or after experimenting with prisms, but after would make sense.  

It is good to develop your own style.  A composers style will/should evolve evolve, that is part of human nature. otherwise you become stagnant.. It is also wise to extend your composition style because music evolves..  I like comparing movie scores from now and from the 80's.. While all these libraries, in Kontakt format, (and others) are great.. It really just too many of todays scores, pretty much sound like everybody elses. That is the price we pay, because the price of creating a movie score, and hiring a real orchestrall is just too expensive.. A have a music libary junkie friend.. He buys every library he can...And while the scope of music has expanded; it really doesn't sound 'personal' anymore.. 

From a business standpoint, the wider the scope of your music, the more jobs you will be elegible to get the jobs..