Getting started on a composition
Getting started on a composition assignment is much easier if you’ve already got an idea that you want to write about. Having a reason to write a piece of music helps you set up the mood of your piece right from the start, ensures that you have something to communicate in your music and can ease decision making throughout the creative process. But how do you find an idea to start a piece? While you can find inspiration to write music from almost anywhere, this blog post is intended to get you thinking about how composers have found inspiration for music from the world around them, from their personal experiences and from a curiosity / fascination with sound itself. The process of thinking about the kinds of things that inspire composers to write a piece may spark an idea for a piece you can write for your next composition assignment or competition entry and I hope this post will help get you started thinking creatively about something you feel moved to write about.
Finding inspiration for music from the world around you
Composers often see, hear or experience something in the world around them that triggers a musical idea. It could be something in nature, or something striking about a landscape that conjures up a particular mood or emotion. It could be a world event. There have been powerful pieces of music that have emerged both from celebration and from tragedy. History, shared stories, the visual arts and other media can also stimulate musical expression.
Below are a few examples of pieces that have been inspired by some of these things. Listen to the works and read about them also. As you listen, consider how the music represents the idea that inspired it.
Inspiration from Nature
The Horizon from Owhiro Bay - Gareth Farr
Piano prelude from the collection of Landscape Preludes by NZ composers, commissioned by NZ pianist, Stephen de Pledge.
Inspiration from History / World Event
The No Man’s Land Project - John Psathas and Jasmine Millet.
'A deeply moving multi-media work that spans generations, continents, cultures and beliefs, and reflects on the devastating impact and futility of war." It premiered as a centrepiece of New Zealand’s First World War commemorations in 2016.
WTC 9/11th Steve Reich
“WTC 9/11 is Reich’s concise memorial to the World Trade Centre atrocity. It incorporates recordings of messages from air-traffic controllers, radio broadcasts, and interviews with witnesses that use their speech rhythms to generate musical material.’
Inspiration from shared stories
Debussy - La cathédral engloutie (The sunken cathedral)
A piano prelude written in 1910, drawing inspiration from the ancient Breton legend of Ys. The prelude depicts the rising of a cathedral which was submerged underwater off the coast of the Island of Ys and its return to its submerged state.
Finding inspiration from a personal experience
Personal experiences can be a rich source of inspiration for music. Composers sometimes find ideas for a piece of music from something that happened to them or write a piece of music for a special friend. Writing a piece of music about something personal gives you the opportunity to draw an audience into your inner world and although you never have to reveal the details of your experience, the musical expression of universal emotions and moods associated with your story can resonate powerfully with your audience.
Below are examples of pieces that were drawn from a composer’s personal experience. As you read about the works and listen to them, think about how the music conveys the moods and feelings of this experience.
Lullaby for Matthew - Dame Gillian Whitehead
Piece for solo piano, written to celebrate the birth of the composer’s nephew, Matthew and dedicated to her sister Jocye and Matthew.
Symphony no 5 - ‘Childhood’ Anthony Ritchie
‘Symphony No.5 represents both a looking back at the past and a moving forward in a new direction, as symbolized by references to childhood and, simultaneously, reflections on adulthood. Childhood becomes a metaphor for renewed hope and optimism for the future but is also challenged by adult realities.’
Commemoration - Eve de Castro Robinson
A short elegy written for Eve de Castro Robinson’s friend and fellow composer Gerard Crotty who died of cancer in 1988 at the age of 30. The work is dedicated to his memory.
FINDING INSPIRATION FROM SOUND
Sometimes it is a fascination with sound itself that is the stimulus for a composer to write a piece or to write in a particular way. Sounds in the natural world or from industrial urban landscapes can provide musical material and ideas ready for composers to develop.
Composers sometimes transcribe natural sounds and use these in their pieces. Messiaen, for example was fascinated with the sound of bird song, and made many transcriptions of birds from around the world. These transcriptions were often incorporated into his music. Oiseaux exotique, a piece for piano and orchestra which makes use of over 50 different bird songs, is an example of one of these pieces.
The facility to record and manipulate recorded sound has opened up huge creative possibilities for composers. It’s possible to incorporate recorded sound into acoustic works or to create a work entirely from electronically manipulated sound. NZ Composer John Rimmer frequently uses electronic sounds in his chamber or solo works. For example, Composition 4, by John Rimmer is for solo flute and electronic sounds. In the work, you can hear string and percussive sounds accompany flute writing that evokes the Japanese shakuhachi.
Poeme electronique by Varese is a famous work by Varese which is made up entirely of electronic sound. The first performance of the work was at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair and used 400 loudspeakers. It’s an example of a style of composition called Musique concrète which uses recorded sounds as raw material. Varese was interested in expanding musical expression beyond the tradition parameters often set up by the use of pitch, harmony or melody in a work and was interested in using the elements of rhythm, tone colour, silence as a means of organising sound, electronically through magnetic tape. You can hear industrial sounds like sirens, human cries and explosions in the work.
Listening to the sounds around you may give you inspiration to write a piece. Anything from the intermittent sound of a tap dripping to the wind rustling through leaves can become an idea that can shape a piece.
I think that communication is at the heart of the music making process and that when you have a clear idea behind the music that you write, you’ll find creating music to be meaningful. Ideas can come from a huge variety of sources. The world around you, your own experiences and sounds that you encounter can each provide a wealth of ideas for you to write about.