Composition in music: concept, basics, role, technique

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Composition in music has its own foundations, theoretical aspects and technique. Theory is a tool for an elegant and competent presentation of musical material. Technique is the ability to correctly express your ideas in musical notation.

Required ingredients

Composition in music implies the presence of the most important accompanying elements, without which the integrity of this system is impossible. This list includes:

1. Author (composer) and his creative work.
2. His work, living independently of himself.
3. Implementation of content in a specific sound scheme.
4. A complex mechanism of technical devices united by music theory.

Each type of art has a specific range of techniques. Their assimilation is an obligatory aspect for creative activity. Music is highly labor intensive. For this reason, the composer needs technical equipment.

About the creative method

According to D. Kabalevsky, composer activitybased more on technique than creativity. And the share of the first aspect here is 90%, the second - 10%. That is, the composer must know the required techniques and skillfully implement them.

Each author has his own way of creating music. It is characterized by the concept of "creative method".

Many of the classics who wrote works for orchestras had an outstanding inner ear for timbre. They imagined the real sound of their creation in advance.

For example, W. A. Mozart improved the score to such a level that it only remained to make notes.

Thus, the composition in music is also the doctrine of the connection of expressiveness techniques in the compositional system. Here there is an organizing beginning of the creative space - this is a form-scheme. It is a facet of musical unity associated with the order of the chronological development of the work.

The composer creates and perfects his creation, using inner views about true sound. He can make notes in a workbook or on a computer. The piano is usually used to select the melody.

Stages of classical composition

The initial stage is the creation of a general plan. It highlights the following algorithm:

1. Resolving the issue with the musical genre. Understanding the plot.
2. Creating a form-scheme.
3. Choosing a creative technique.

At the third stage, a figurative melody is composed. This can take place on the basis of preliminary preparations or withusing smooth extensions. This image should match:

• harmony;
• texture;
• additional voices with polyphonic development.

A piece of music should be accessible to perception. When listening to it, a person focuses on key points and at the same time rests aesthetically.

Main Features

Composition in music is a unity characterized by stability. Here the constant temporal fluidity is overcome, the equally realizable uniqueness of the key musical components is formed: tempo, rhythm, pitch, etc.

Due to stability, the musical sound is equally reproduced through any periods after its creation.

Also, the composition is always calculated on the level of performers.

Non-classical essay

To create compositions to music, you need certain abilities and musical literacy.

One way or another, you need to follow the principles of melody formation:

1. Balance. The line must not be overloaded. Rhythm and intonation complement each other. And the use of jumps at significant intervals, deviations from modulation and other similar factors only make the work very difficult to perceive. You can get by with a simpler rhythm with a sophisticated system and vice versa.
2. Melodic wave. The principle is based on the fact that the movement goes up and down alternately.
3. Unity of intonation. ATthe musical theme may have leading intervals. A striking example is the second intonation in Mozart's Requiem.

Whatever type of composition is used in music, the work can be advantageously diversified by finding the melody in different registers. For example, it can develop from the bass lines, reach the second or third octave, and return to the lows again.

Criteria for creating an expressive melody

If you want to create a beautiful memorable composition, follow these mandatory points:

1. Representation of an artistic image for embodiment in a work. Start from your tasks. For example, your creation will be only instrumental or include a vocal line in it. Solve the issue with his character. Thanks to this, decide on the means of expression.
2. Improvisation. It involves as much playing and listening as possible. This is how the optimal melodic line is determined. Finding interesting options requires some patience.
3. If step 2 is difficult to master, compose a melody that is similar emotionally. It can be recorded in a music book, on a computer or on a voice recorder.
4. Change. Work with a specific theme of your creation. Change one or more notes, measure or key into it. Explore the pros and cons of the results.
5. Analysis of other works. Listen to your favorite songs. Highlight the expressive techniques used in them. Compare them to your work. So you better understand your shortcomings (if any).

Historicalsummaries

Since ancient times, the idea of compositional integrity has been associated with a textual basis. The dance-metric system was considered another foundation.

As music evolved, composition theory varied too. In the 11th century, Givdo Aretinsky published his Microlog. In it, under the term composition, he cited the masterful creation of a chorale.

Two centuries later, another specialist, John de Groqueio, in his work “On Music”, interpreted this definition as a complex composite work.

In the 15th century John Tinctoris wrote "The Book of the Art of Counterpoint". In it, he clearly distinguished between two bases: notated and improvised.

During the late 15th to early 16th century, the knowledge of counterpoint developed into a definition of "The Art of Composition".

Applied music theory began to develop in the 16th-17th centuries.

In the next two centuries, a unified theory about harmony, the use of instruments, musical form and the principles of polyphony was formed. Artistic autonomy developed. The basics of composition in music began to be recognized:

1. Pitch.
2. Modulations.
3. Motives.
4. Themes.
5. Contrasts of the song scheme and connecting solutions.

At the same time, theorists focused mainly on the sonata cycle in the classical interpretation.

Due to the fact that in the Renaissance the concept of personal freedom of a creative person was actively developing, the status ofcomposer. In the XIV century, a norm was introduced - to indicate the authors of musical works.

Twentieth century

He did not stand out with more than one unified doctrine of composition. And previous musical historical epochs were distinguished by its common basis. It complied with the main condition - the unity of the major-minor structure.

Due to its collapse and the global cataclysms of the last century, artistic perception has also changed significantly.

Single style has sunk into oblivion. It's time for multiple styles. The techniques of composition in music were also individualized.

Her new variations were formed:

1. Dodecaphony. The basis of the work here is a combination of twelve heights that should not be repeated.
2. Sonorica. A complex of multiple sounds is used. Bright bands are built from it, controlling the action of the musical fabric.
3. Electroacoustics. To create this music, special technologies are used. Their complex application forms a mixed compositional technique.