Make music

[Isobe-jan]

Do any of you make music? Like your own stuff? Out of your own brain?
I be curious sometimes;

 

[Angry_Panda]

I have a BA in Music Composition, though I don't write much any more. So... yes?

 

[BakedBanana]

I made music in Mario Paint, so yes, I'm a professional in my craft. Ask me anything.

 

[DavidianMillerian]

just recently started composing in FL Studio

 

[bigtiddyoneesan]

I made music in Mario Paint, so yes, I'm a professional in my craft. Ask me anything.

what the hell have i been doing, playing the old fire emblem games when i could have been making masterpieces like this instead

 

[DavidianMillerian]

I made music in Mario Paint, so yes, I'm a professional in my craft. Ask me anything.

TEACH ME YOUR WAYS, SENSEI 🙏

 

[BakedBanana]

what the hell have i been doing, playing the old fire emblem games when i could have been making masterpieces like this instead

Sorry man, too late now. You're washed up and OLD.

A Cat from Our World and the Forgotten Witch chapter 16

 

[Angry_Panda]

Sorry man, too late now. You're washed up and OLD.

A Cat from Our World and the Forgotten Witch chapter 16

Dude. BTO stands for Bachman Turner Overdrive, responsible for this banger:

THERE'S STILL HOPE.

 

[DavidianMillerian]

Dude. BTO stands for Bachman Turner Overdrive, responsible for this banger:

THERE'S STILL HOPE.

I should really get a VPN at some point

 

[Angry_Panda]

I should really get a VPN at some point

It's "Takin' Care of Business", in case you want to find it.

 

[Isobe-jan]

I have a BA in Music Composition, though I don't write much any more. So... yes

Wait that's cool why'd you stop? You doing something completely unrelated to music now?

 

[Isobe-jan]

I made music in Mario Paint, so yes, I'm a professional in my craft. Ask me anything.

I see the vision, will be waiting for the full track

 

[Angry_Panda]

Wait that's cool why'd you stop? You doing something completely unrelated to music now?

A combination of things senior year of college caused me to get out of academia - partly personal, mostly disillusion with the academic environment in several ways. In retrospect that was probably for the best, as I'm not sure I would be comfortable trying to make a living as a professor today.

I very occasionally write a bit for my own amusement, but nothing major or particularly serious. And yes, I'm in an entirely unrelated field now.

 

[Isobe-jan]

A combination of things senior year of college caused me to get out of academia - partly personal, mostly disillusion with the academic environment in several ways. In retrospect that was probably for the best, as I'm not sure I would be comfortable trying to make a living as a professor today.

I very occasionally write a bit for my own amusement, but nothing major or particularly serious. And yes, I'm in an entirely unrelated field now.

I see well it is the case in many fields that academia kills passion. Your choice is entirely honorable.
Music still rocks though, the BTO track is fire btw

 

[Angry_Panda]

I see well it is the case in many fields that academia kills passion. Your choice is entirely honorable.

I have seen a few comments from composers who would be my peers (in terms of when we were going through school) that the approach to teaching composition being used by our professors really screwed up my generation of composers. I think that's a fair assessment. A lot of those teachers (mine included) were in the 'anything goes' mentality of the second half of the 20th Century, and neglected to teach the traditional, more rigorous and disciplined approaches to structuring larger works, so there were a lot of aimless, shambling tape collages and aleatoric works for ensembles that didn't really 'go' anywhere or 'say' anything (nor were they particularly fun to sit through, either as a performer or an audience member).

(I just wanted to pick around in the remnants of late Romanticism and keep going from there, and that didn't entirely sit well with my professor.)

 

[Isobe-jan]

I have seen a few comments from composers who would be my peers (in terms of when we were going through school) that the approach to teaching composition being used by our professors really screwed up my generation of composers. I think that's a fair assessment. A lot of those teachers (mine included) were in the 'anything goes' mentality of the second half of the 20th Century, and neglected to teach the traditional, more rigorous and disciplined approaches to structuring larger works, so there were a lot of aimless, shambling tape collages and aleatoric works for ensembles that didn't really 'go' anywhere or 'say' anything (nor were they particularly fun to sit through, either as a performer or an audience member).

(I just wanted to pick around in the remnants of late Romanticism and keep going from there, and that didn't entirely sit well with my professor.)

Hmm yeah if you wanna break the rules in a subversive way it is necessary to first master them well... You cannot advance the isekai genre without having thoroughly read through hundreds of tropy generic works.
I take it that you were concerned mostly with classical music (not the era but the types of instruments or idk how to appropriately name it)? Maybe with that background you can end up producing anything but seems to me the demand for new works with symphonic orchestra type instruments is pretty limited. Is it like high fashion only for a very select audience?

 

[Angry_Panda]

Hmm yeah if you wanna break the rules in a subversive way it is necessary to first master them well...

True, though in a case like this the traditional approach is 'here's a rather tightly constrained set of limitations, now write a work within them', which provides for the opportunity for the student to figure out where the boundaries are and for the teacher to be able to critique the resulting work in a constructive manner. Gradually the limitations are broadened as the student grasps the various concepts for themselves and is able to develop their 'voice'. This works better that 'write whatever the hell you want', which is basically what I got from my teacher.

I take it that you were concerned mostly with classical music (not the era but the types of instruments or idk how to appropriately name it)?

Yes, generally 'art' music, though a lot of the concepts can be applied to other broad genres (jazz, singer/songwriter, scoring for film/TV, etc.).

Maybe with that background you can end up producing anything but seems to me the demand for new works with symphonic orchestra type instruments is pretty limited. Is it like high fashion only for a very select audience?

This is part of a very large discussion about how the role of music in everyday life has changed over... let's say 300 years or so. Yes, today it's safe to say that 'going to the symphony' is a fairly 'elite' hobby, and going specifically to hear new works rather than the established classical canon is the goal of a minority of that group. A big part of that 'new music' audience has been tied in with the academic world pretty closely for the past 50-75 years, so it tends to be a bit... incestuous in that regard.

This is a shame - there are some very good modern composers that a much broader audience would likely appreciate, but the 'orchestra falling down a flight of stairs' approach that seemed to dominate the general public's exposure to new works in the latter 20th Century has left a very poor opinion of modern composition in the minds of many people, and it's hard to shake that.

 

[Isobe-jan]

This is part of a very large discussion about how the role of music in everyday life has changed over... let's say 300 years or so. Yes, today it's safe to say that 'going to the symphony' is a fairly 'elite' hobby, and going specifically to hear new works rather than the established classical canon is the goal of a minority of that group. A big part of that 'new music' audience has been tied in with the academic world pretty closely for the past 50-75 years, so it tends to be a bit... incestuous in that regard.

This is a shame - there are some very good modern composers that a much broader audience would likely appreciate, but the 'orchestra falling down a flight of stairs' approach that seemed to dominate the general public's exposure to new works in the latter 20th Century has left a very poor opinion of modern composition in the minds of many people, and it's hard to shake that.

It's true that the piece of modern composition I've seen the most in popular media is the one where it's just 5minutes of silence... but I'd be interested in the names of some of those modern composers you were thinking of if you don't mind. I am a very curious fellow

 

[Angry_Panda]

It's true that the piece of modern composition I've seen the most in popular media is the one where it's just 5minutes of silence...

John Cage's 4'33", probably - brilliant the first time it was conceived, and entirely derivative any time someone tried to do something similar after that. Cage is a good place to start because he was genuinely the first person to try some of the things he was doing (see also Imaginary Landscape No. 4, for instance), and he did actually approach his works in a disciplined manner coming from his traditional training (unlike some members of the later generations who tried to emulate him).

I'd be interested in the names of some of those modern composers you were thinking of if you don't mind.

The American John Adams is worth a listen (and if you like him, Steve Reich and Philip Glass are worth investigating); I rather like Iannis Xenakis and Arvo Pärt as well. John Zorn is kind of all over the place, but is a good guy to start with if you want to have a single point of departure for a lot of modern styles. A lot of modern film and TV composers are also good jumping off points - many of them cross over into the concert hall.