Almost 30 members. it's getting busy here. I can't possibly remember all the names, let alone the things they stand for. Maybe I should put their photos on a whiteboard, like detectives do when they're trying to solve a crime. I will make notes like "intellectual, proceed with caution" or "music too good, probably stolen" and draw a line between the notes and the photos with a red marker. It's almost like Cluedo. Who is most likely to kill the forum?
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ps... I certainly wasn't refering to anyone's music (save ENO), but just the definition..
Who's that ENO everyone is talking about? A bit of a ruffian, eh? Banned from the forum?
Enjoyable music in a classical style can still have a sophisticated harmony, perfect voice leading and nice 'trouvailles'. I wrote some music for harpsichord in a baroque style, but used a whole tone key at about the middle of the score in one or two bars. The public propably won't hear it. It's only there because I like to enjoy myself while writing music. These kind of 'trouvailles' shouldn't be shoved in the face of the audience though. It's there for the ones who are interested. The rest simply enjoys the music. As they should.
I'll put myself forward as the site Luddite and proud of it.
I utterly HATE notation software - not much happier about the canned stuff that tries to imitate the performance of an orchestra or any acoustic instrument.
Notation software is MILES too slow for composing and seems to force a way of thinking that's more like a creative prison. The only thing it's good for is ripping parts. I have one such program on my computer and it's so far cost around £20 per score (while the aspirins to struggle with it have probably come to £25).
I still start with pencil and paper. Ideas can be too evanescent to wrestle with dozens of mouse clicks just to jot them down.
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You write music using a pencil and paper. Once you have finished composing, you can use notation software to create a musical score. Composing directly with notation software is not the recommended approach. The speed of notation depends on your proficiency in using the software. Therefore, I don't understand what the issue is here.
Of course, I write music with a quill and use only parchment.
I understand this very much Grove. What has helped me overcome some of the issues I had is using Sibelius on a touch screen with a digital pen and note input via a midi keyboard. I am, having had a lot of practice, surprisingly quick at filling in blank digital staves. That said, on a table to my right, I have a manuscript pad for those evanescent moments still.
I often have a soft spot for Luddites being in some areas one myself and people can of course compose in any way they want, although to me it's a mystery how writing out everything by hand can be quicker than playing directly into a score from a MIDI keyboard. Having said that, these days it seems to me to be a distinct disadvantage not to be at least able to use notation software. I know a composer in that position (the greatest living symphonist in my view) who cannot currently afford the copyist fee to get a score produced of his latest work. He offered me €500 and I briefly I investigated OMR software to see if it would be able to cope with his handwriting. There were too many errors to make it time efficient so he'll need to save up for his regular copyist who will need to laboriously enter everything into Sibelius.
And as for "canned stuff that tries to imitate the performance of an orchestra" -- well in general these are recordings of actual musicians playing. The thing which makes them seem "canned" is that the assembly of all the individual notes and phrases tends to make for a somewhat artificial effect although that is becoming ever less the case with the improved programming of modern libraries and there are an increasing number of situations where the average music lover couldn't tell the difference. Ever more commercial music dispenses with "real" musicians altogether (as some forum members will be very aware). And the canned stuff is the only way most composers without connections will ever be able to hear a work for full orchestra played.
David, just a quick note, I haven't forgotten to finish off Cinderella (eh?). I will have time at the weekend.
thanks, will be interesting to see what you make of the second half. Incidentally, I listened with my wife and put your point to her that the scoring seemed threadbare. She didn't agree, finding it matched what I was trying to express. It has to be remembered this was never supposed to be a work for full orchestra -- the three strings are soloists. I entirely take the point that I could have done more if I had tried to use a conventional orchestra, though. Even within my self-imposed limitations, I'm sure there are some passages which could be a bit more elaborate so if you have any specific suggestions, I'm quite happy to consider them!
It must depend on the actual composition - playing directly from a keyboard is fine to produce a "piano track" but there are complications, like working to a grid...prison bars to me because one ends up shifting time saved onto editing. Then transferring lines to other staves (unless recording track by track which admittedly is rather clever). I do have a keyboard but ...in the initial ideas stage, it's risky... one makes a mistake or wants to try a variation... these things have to be edited out unless each try is saved. Mind changing is a plague here. I like to keep those changed bits in case I change my mind back - easier to see them collated on paper on the table.
As I tend to think "orchestrally" I make text notes as I go about what's what. Having developed a shorthand that's more akin to time-line than time signature, it's just quicker for me. Once a semblance of a piece can be assumed it goes into the daw.
As for canned stuff, it's still canned - it isn't an orchestral performance. I only bother to prepare scores that I'll send (almost certainly uselessly) to the BBC and the County orchestra. It's why my pieces aim at 5 minutes. There's more chance of a local being fitted in somewhere. I have had stuff played and had the mispleasure of having to prepare it...things sadly of a disappearing past. If I want our local orchestra to perform something, should it ever be reconvened after the pandemic, best it's in C major and 4/4. (None of my stuff has a key signature which doesn't mean it's in C major!). I used to play in an ensemble but even that has evaporated thanks to covid.
I suppose it's how we individually work and the type of thing we want to compose. How 'free' we need to be at each stage of the admin!
Last night I spent about ten minutes editing in a part in a (software) score and then a totally frustrating hour trying to find out how to delete a pictorial cover to the score. Unsiccessful. I gave up. Software? Give it a bang of the footwear!
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