Musical Form

Composers' Rules of Engagement

First Rule:

If you want to move, don't stay in one place.

Music can be static if it (for example) never changes pitch level. Minimalism although based on repetition is not static if processes of change are present (as in good examples of this genre).
Be sensitive to the need for change in your own work. Any process of change, sudden or gradual, can be created with any single composer's tool or combination of tools.

Second Rule:

Sooner or later, you have to consider where your work is going.

There are several ways to approach a composition.
- Start with overall planning then start sketching.
- Sketch first then develop an overall plan that fits your ideas.
- Note: Overall Planning is always in the equation. Sketching without thought of structure leads to aimless stream-of-conscious lack of cohesion.
On Thinking about Structure: Today's composer can use traditional formal templates and modern techniques at the same time. While there may be differences in process and style, traditional models and their contemporary analogs have the following in common: content, form-defining closure, changing tonal centers, textural design, optional linking passages and optional extensions such as introductions and codas.

Third Rule:

Avoid the Edifice Complex.

Fourth Rule:

Give a thought to others involved in the process.

Remember the performers. Remember the listeners.
Stay in touch with both. Put yourself in their place.
Think about the mechanics of musical communication.
(See Music-As-System).

Fifth Rule:

Be your own theorist.

Vital ideas come from experimentation with raw materials. Re-visit basic elements to discover their pattern possibilities for yourself. [Many of these tools pages are the result of that kind of inquiry.] Your question should be "What can I do with this?" not "What does the book say to do with this?"
A vital composition is one in which the composer tests his or her discoveries about the nature of musical materials -- and the nature of music itself, for that matter. Composition is, in short, an application of a composer's theories about music.
Everything about you goes into your composition. A composition is the sum of everything you know and feel about music -- and life.

Sixth Rule:

Be your own critic.

As a self-critic, your primary goal is to identify what you are trying to accomplish as a composer. Once you establish this, criticism is a process of judging how effectively you achieved your goals. The final stage of criticism is to decide what to do about an ineffective or unclear passage.
Under no circumstances should you judge your work based on how it matches up to the work of others. What is important is your participation in the world of ideas, not how you measure up.
Avoid belittling or minimizing your own contribution to the world of ideas. No matter how small, a contribution is a contribution. Do not be carpingly critical of your own effort. Instead, expend your energy experimenting with ideas and writing notes.

Return to the Index to Form page.
Return to Composer's Tools.

This area is under development and will continue to grow.
© copyright 1996-2000 Kenneth R. Rumery, all rights reserved Last updated 7 June 2000