What is the single most important ability/skill for composition?

I suspect it is sight-reading because if you have that then you can read all manuscripts and understand them which will help you imitate them. If you hear in your head what is written on a manuscript, then you can write down what you hear in your head. Now the question is, what is the best way to improve one's sight-reading, especially where several parts are concerned.

Did you say "imitate" ?:)

If you are making experimental music, you must know what you want to express.

If you are making traditional and tonal music, you must know what audience want to hear.

Hurm...hard to make a call on the single most important trait for a composer to have...but I'd harbor a guess at it being your ability to take criticism well--find out what's legitimately helpful that someone has to offer for improving your craft, and learn to just brush off the rest with either a "thank you" or a "whatever, screw you," depending on the tone and context of the criticism dealt. The way I see it, every artist worth their weight not only can stand to improve, but actively seeks to improve their craft without end. Ask the most talented musicians alive today after a performance what they thought of their performance, and they'll usually list at least one thing they could have done better...and it's because they know that there's always room for improvement.

i'd say creativity. Imagination and creativity. I doubt that the early masters had much to study from, but they had creativity in abundance.

I definately say NOT sight-reading. The ability to read music well has little/no effect on your skill in writing it. ...

Listening to lots and lots of music of different genre and tradition is extremely important. Listening can be a pastime for others, but for composers, it is a serious activity. We cannot afford to listen to music while reading the newspaper.

composition is about both self-expression AND communication. The common dissent between these two is what makes music so special. Composition's single most important ability is the mood.

^2

The composers most prized abilities in my opinion are to think in the abstract, to communicate their feelings in sound, but most of all to connect all of their ideas in a logical albeit sometimes dissonant flow.

most of all to connect all of their ideas in a logical albeit sometimes dissonant flow.

What a great definition of composition!

I honestly wouldn't know, I just randomly get musical ideas in my head, and compose them. If I could figure how to trigger these musical ideas, whenever I wanted to, that would make composing a lot easier.

Music is the art, the craft, and the science of organizing sound and silence in the framework of time.

the will to write.

I'd say... :)

Living. Things like breathing are also good unless you can write really fast.

The ability to actually finish a composition which began with an inspirational idea.

Oh definately, that's a great point!

Question is, how do you guys come up with musical ideas? For me, musical ideas just pop up in my head randomly, and I compose them.

1) For me, the most important ability in composition is the feeling, followed by coherence (like a common chat).

2) Musical ideas are the most important things in composition and I said feeling is the most important thing in composition. Then, my inspiration comes from feelings.

I agree that sight-reading, self-expression, the ability to communicate, and the ability to think in complex logical chains are all indispensable skills for producing good compositions. But I believe there is a skill even more fundamental than all of these, and that skill is a good inner ear. By inner ear I mean the ability to conceive of music in great detail in one's head without any visual or other aids, and then the ability to analyze that music so that it can be written down. Then, once the music is down on paper, a good inner ear enables the composer to hear that music once more in his or her head in a way that allows for the flexibility of revision.

Ours is primarily a hearing art, and for this reason I believe that the ear and its intuitions must reign supreme in making decisions about music composition.

Of course I'm not saying that a good ear guarantees that good music will come out. I simply believe that it is the most fundamental of skills one can possess as a musician. (This is kind of motivating me to start a big ear training thread I've been contemplating for a while.)

What do you all think? Is this the most fundamental skill as a composer, or is there something even deeper?

What is the single most important ability/skill for composition?

I think the question is flawed. I can't single down one. But I can think of important attributes that cannot be missing:

Passion, tenacity, understanding of music and the right balance between imagination and logic.

The ability to actually finish a composition which began with an inspirational idea.

Uhm... Don't they all start with inspirational ideas?... :D

At least mine do... And I've finished them :P

Well, That's why you are a composer, aren't you ?