A Bachelor's in Music, major in Poverty, minor in Superiority

[twoofswords]

So last month I got my fancy leather-bound piece of paper and my pink tassel (yes, B.Mus. is pink and B.A. is black). Now I have no job, no insurance, little money, and a lot of debt but am managing to get by. Tonight I take the course which will allow me to get my bartender's license, which will hopefully improve my options in the shitty job

Comments

[tyger01]

Hey I've been meaning to ask you:

Are there any text books or anything you'd recommend if I wanted to get some of the basic principles behind composing in modern idioms? Or could you maybe learn me a thing 'r two some time? I want more in my palette than baroque counterpoint, you know?

[twoofswords]

If you don't have it already, the first thing you need to own is the composer's bible aka The Study of Orchestration by Samuel Adler (who I happen to have sat with at a piano while he instructed me on "how to go about writing a good melody". Mind you he was visiting LU at nearly 90 years of age and still teaches at Juilliard). His book includes EVERY instrument, how it is constructed, what its range/timbre/capacities are, musical examples, and how to effectively group it with other types. Another good book, though not as important, is Music Notation in the 20th Century, but that's for more pretentious composers of the modern era. Otherwise, the best route is what I've done for the most part: score study. Find something you like in a piece and steal it gracefully and combine it with other things you like in music. Looking at scores is also one of the best ways of figuring out what's idiomatic on instruments with which you may not be so familiar. Most of the other compositional concepts and processes I use were developed through

[twoofswords]

Oh, and each of those pieces is approximately 1 minute in length.