Blogger Maxx said...
I would be very interested in learning to compose, but I had a difficult time learning counterpoint (apparently Cage never took to harmony well either). What materials does one recommend for the aspiring composer without academic support?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Hi! I've been in such a situation--without academic support--throughout high school and my undergraduate degree. The most important thing a self-taught composer can do is to learn to read a score well. There's no better way to learn how pieces fit together than to get a score to a favorite piece, follow it with a good recording, then figure out how it all fits together. Listening to a ton of music is necessary, too.
Counterpoint can be tricky, and I think it helps to find pieces outside of a counterpoint exercise book to study. Counterpoint didn't make sense to me until I started learning some of Bartok's Mikrokosmos, for instance. Also, having a good working knowledge of voice leading is important for later styles of counterpoint.
garpu has been there -- his advice sounds sensible if that is where you are. A really good way into ctpt is hacking through all of Bach WTK plus some of the organ pieces and suites. It will soak in! And some Ligeti and Webern for a chaser.
The old method was copying scores. If you can get scores from the library, you can practice composing by copying note for note the masters. By osmosis, you should gain knowledge of orchestration, counterpoint, and composition.
Post a Comment