How Has Your Music Changed Over The Years?

What were you into and making when you started and how has your style, tastes, etc changed since then?

For me, I went through a lot of phases. Started with rock music and metal, then was really into electronic stuff in the early 2010s. I feel that I've largely "grown out" of those genres.

I feel like I used to like and hear more band/wind ensemble music, probably because I used to be in more bands and wind ensembles although I always secretly wished to be an orchestra musician.  Besides brief stints with popular and rock music mostly because of friends (a friend needed me to analyze some Radiohead songs for a report he was doing and I transcribed and harmonized some friends songs too) I have basically always stayed an avid listener of classical music.  When I joined my first online music community I got the chance to orchestrate and rearrange many fellow composers organ and piano pieces which was a blast and overall, I thought, a really successful collaboration.  I think I was probably more open to more experimental music in the past.  I don't know which composer said this but he said that he has been a composer and musician for over 20 years, so how can he expect an audience to understand his music on first hearing?  I think I've grown to believe that all music is intricately constructed - even music from the classical era and pop music and yet we understand those upon first hearing - so why shouldn't we expect to be able to understand all music in the same manner?  Anyways - I don't know if that's on topic for this thread but that's my opinion.

On 6/21/2021 at 10:35 PM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

I feel like I used to like and hear more band/wind ensemble music, probably because I used to be in more bands and wind ensembles although I always secretly wished to be an orchestra musician.  Besides brief stints with popular and rock music mostly because of friends (a friend needed me to analyze some Radiohead songs for a report he was doing and I transcribed and harmonized some friends songs too) I have basically always stayed an avid listener of classical music.  When I joined my first online music community I got the chance to orchestrate and rearrange many fellow composers organ and piano pieces which was a blast and overall, I thought, a really successful collaboration.  I think I was probably more open to more experimental music in the past.  I don't know which composer said this but he said that he has been a composer and musician for over 20 years, so how can he expect an audience to understand his music on first hearing?  I think I've grown to believe that all music is intricately constructed - even music from the classical era and pop music and yet we understand those upon first hearing - so why shouldn't we expect to be able to understand all music in the same manner?  Anyways - I don't know if that's on topic for this thread but that's my opinion.

 

Good post

I have went through several phases as a composer, each one lasting about a year:

Phase 1: Ambition

This first phase lasted about a year and most of my successful compositions were Piano Solo at the time, but I was trying everything I could think of. Symphonies, Fugues, Sonatas, Quartets, Trios, Canons, everything. My first symphony idea was in Phase 1. My first chamber works were in Phase 1. If I couldn't compose for a certain ensemble, like String Quartet for example(even 4 years later, I still have troubles with the String Quartet ensemble), I could sure arrange for said ensemble. In fact, most of my successes in Phase 1 were arrangements and not compositions. My pieces strongly emulated the greats, first Pachelbel, then Mozart, then Chopin, then Beethoven, then Bach. Beethoven and Mozart were the 2 that I emulated most often and are my 2 strongest influences, the 2 strongest roots of my compositional style, and my first and second favorite composers respectively. Later in this phase, my harmonic vocabulary expanded and it would just continue expanding.

Phase 2: Stability

This second phase was a point of stability for me, and it also lasted about a year. This is when Chamber Music became my most common ensemble, usually a Duet or Trio, occasionally a Quartet, more often a Quintet or larger than a Quartet(and if a Quartet, usually Woodwind Quartet). It is when I really started experimenting with pairing different instruments together, like Bassoon and Cello for example. It is when I really fell in love with the Suite as a genre, although my first and still incomplete suite has roots in Phase 1. Without knowing it at first, I was destined to become one with the orchestra, to write orchestral works more often. That's right, my first orchestral work ever, Viaggio de Mare originates in Phase 2. It is also when I noticed that Programmatic Music was way easier for me to compose than Absolute Music. Even Sonatas were easier to compose if I had some kind of atmosphere as a reference. I still compose some Absolute Music to this day, but most of mine is Programmatic. The form started to subconsciously unfold itself instead of me forcing it in. It's when I knew that Sonata Form and Rondo Form were to be my 2 most common forms, even outside of Sonatas. But then, suddenly, it was like a spark lit up in me last summer.

Phase 3: Confidence

When I composed that March of Iwo Jima piece and finished it, I knew, I just knew that the orchestra was finally in my grasp, and I started writing quite a few more orchestral pieces. I was very close to the Symphony and the Concerto being in my grasp, but I wasn't quite that confident yet. The orchestral suite though? No problem. Programmatic pieces for orchestra? No problem. Recomposing an earlier chamber work for orchestra? No problem. So what if it takes me a long time to compose an orchestral piece? It would take me a very similar length of time for a Piano Solo composition as it would for an orchestral composition. The important thing here is that I gained enough confidence to compose for the orchestra without it overwhelming me(which is what it did when I was composing Viaggio de Mare and is why I only have 12 measures of it written down). I of course still compose chamber works and relatively recently there has been a resurgence of Piano Solo with my 25 Preludes, but the orchestra will always be one of my go tos for composing.

My music has changed dramatically over the years.

I started having an ambition as a composer since little, and I wrote my first composition at the age of nine. My early compositions were influenced by composers from the Classical Era, especially Muzio Clementi. However, they were very amateurish and sometimes I even felt embarrassed to play my piano compositions.

Soon, I started listening to pieces by famous composers such as Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn, and others. I gained very little insight into their compositional styles and started incorporating them in my later compositions.

Throughout learning from my music teacher, I learned the harmony fundamentals, such as chord progressions, parallel fifths and octaves, and so on. I became so interested in why these harmony rules existed and conducted research on those topics. From there, I learned what makes a piece of music sound pleasing to the ear. I started applying my knowledge from music theory, especially harmony, into my compositions, and my music had changed tremendously since that day.

When I started using MuseScore at the age of fourteen, my music entered a new phase: this was where I began experimenting on different combinations of harmonies and notes and writing all kinds of music genres, such as preludes, waltzes, and nocturnes. However, most of my piano pieces were highly unplayable and still amateurish, and I still lacked confidence in playing my music.

I took the next leap when I started spending time listening to and playing Frédéric Chopin's piano pieces. I adored his compositional style and wondered what the composer did to produce such a beautiful tune. After listening to his pieces for years, my music began to be heavily influenced by Chopin.

Other than listening to Chopin's works, I also listened to music by other composers, particularly from the Romantic Era, especially Franz Liszt and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. From that time, my music tended towards the Romantic style, and it had never changed since. After years of composing, I became more comfortable with my style of music, and I started gaining confidence in performing my piano pieces.

I've always had a fairly conservative tonal style and haven't strayed too much from it.  My earlier works were more focused on counterpoint (very into Bach in my college years), and while counterpoint remains very important to me, my works have de-emphasized this to a degree and is more harmonically oriented.  I've also consolidated more into a late classical/early Romantic idiom which probably isn't surprising since Beethoven is my favorite composer and whose music I study regularly.  I've also moved from larger ensembles to now mostly smaller form solo piano music which is a little odd since I do not play piano (I was a string player, violin/viola) though I certainly hope to write more orchestra works.  It is just the lack of free time as it is far easier to write for a single instrument than for many at a time.

It's just changed - the earliest days of pride at having an Anglican chant used in church (the choir-master was my first theory mentor) and earning the dubious title of Orchestrator in Chief at secondary school (no big deal but an interesting experience). One builds on what they've done; one studies scores and grows more adventurous... Such formal tertiary education in music taught me what I wasn't going to do and heightened the need for deeper self-expression - and on. 

1 hour ago, Quinn said:

One builds on what they've done; one studies scores and grows more adventurous...

And that perfectly describes my composition development! It's notable even from the works I've posted on here, that I've gone from having a simple, tonal, Classical style, to becoming more Romantic, to beginning to enjoy 20th century music, to really enjoying it and composing in a (very) early 20th century style! I'm sure that many composers have a similar path before they discover what they compose best - and of course, in the future, my style will continue to evolve.

"Change alone is unchanging" - Heraclitus

aMC

Lot of interesting answers here.

To elaborate more for myself, just going through different genres was my main thing. Most of what I do now would likely be most similar to New Age influence; I guess when I think about it, I've wound up combining most of the previous genres I was fixated on into one. Orchestral elements, folk elements, and usually some form of band/rhythm section with a focus on melody and real or sampled acoustic instruments. It comes out sounding like Loreena McKennit, Yanni and a lot classic soundtrack music from the good ol' days, if I may be so bold.

I actually think the very process of getting older is mostly what has motivated these changes; I know it's a cardinal sin to say you "grew out of" metal, but I really think that's what happened. I remember when I was 24 or so, a friend asked me if I wanted to play guitar for some live shows in his cover band playing rock music and rock arrangements of video game music. I declined and I came to realize that the reason was that, even though I still like the music and do write the odd electric-guitar song here and there, there's just no way I could get up on that stage and pretend I'm 16 again. I do think that, with certain popular music genres, there is an inherently youthful aspect and not too long after it becomes cringe and perhaps even undignified; look at Stephen Pearcy from Ratt. The man is in his 60s, still covered in tattoos, drunk all the time, and up on stage bumbling around still trying to belt out some song about girls and partying like he's still 20 years old and I'm sure that, in his mind, for that hour and half he's back on stage — he is.

But yeah, other than that, I can't really stand electronic instruments and synthesizers anymore. What I like about acoustic instruments is that if you have a good room, a good instrument and a good player, you can basically just put a mic in front of them and let them fly at it and it just works; it sounds exactly like you'd hoped and expected.

But creating a good synth patch and getting a good distorted guitar tone — I'd say for every 10 electric guitar tones, there are 9 bad ones — are arts unto themselves and very time consuming. A teacher of mine used to say that every minute you're screwing around with knobs and tackling learning curves, you're not making music. 

That leads me to the other thing that's changed: I just want to make music; not screw around with knobs, mic placements, technology etc. to get the sound I want.