Music Is a Product of Creative Minds - Assignment Example

Like in any field of arts, music is a product of creative minds. Using intricately woven tones and s to express their creative genius, composers express their emotions through musical instruments. These musical geniuses use their talent to touch the hearts of their listeners. Creativity mixed with passion produces breathtaking and unforgettable melodies that move the very souls of their listeners. No wonder a great composer can make their listeners hooked to the mesmerizing music. But just like an entrepreneur devises his marketing stratagems to sell his new business concept and ideas, composers, nowadays, should also employ some marketing knowledge to ensure the success of his piece. In a capitalistic society where achievement is equated with the demand for his work (and its profitability), even the most gifted artists are not spared from commercialization. Quite often beauty is defined by popular following and not by sheer artistry. With this mixture of art and commercialism in the music world, composers should face a challenging frontier in front of him to vie for success. He should balance the inventive search towards the noble and the new in the artistic society and the critical search for mass customer appeal in the business world. Given this let inalienable fact, let us now elaborate the necessary elements that composers should consider in producing his masterpiece. Pre-composition Stage Just like in any field of art, music is a product of mixture of different elements artistically combined together to produce beautiful melodies. Before the ensemble became a concrete reality, a composer should initially brew up an idea. Ideas don't come naturally. It comes from numerous sources. It can come from adopting the sounds of nature, from another musical piece, or from sheer imagination. It can even come from a painful and moving experience. Almost any event that are deeply instilled in a person's emotional and mental faculties are rich sources for ideas. All it takes for a composer is to be keen to the changes that happen within and/or around him. Sources of Ideas Liftoff laid down several sources of ideas for composers based from the first-hand experiences of actual composers: The first is, as mentioned above, the environment where a person is. For a gifted artist, any stimulus is a potential source of ideas. Therefore a composer should develop astuteness in the picking up the signals in his environment to come up with creative concepts. Also by way of analysis to his environment, composers can create melodies and even possible lyrics for his next musical endeavour. Bob Dylan, for example, used music as a medium to convey his anti-war opinions and sentiments. Paul Simon and Arthur Garfunkel of the famed musical duo Simon and Garfunkel produced musical masterpieces on themes of friendship and social awareness. Another source of ideas is the analysis of his inner thoughts and feelings. This is why love songs are listened by different cultures everywhere. They convey the feelings one has towards his loved ones accompanied with musical tunes and melodies. Music is a powerful tool to express one's emotions. Through this a composer can deliver his joy, frustration, sorrow, or any other emotions using its power. A composer should also consider the theme of his work. It should have universal appeal. A good musical piece can enchant listeners across different cultures and boundaries. This is true especially now that, through technology, musical works can be transported and heard in different nations. Experiencing foreign cultures is another method by which a composer can generate ideas. The novelty and the unique experience that a person has in an unfamiliar culture and environment is a fertile soil where musical pieces can bloom. Each culture presents a unique and exciting musical style that can be partially used as raw material for future creations. A composer should also be updated to the latest musical pieces not only within his area but also in other nations. Most musical innovations nowadays are products of merging different musical pieces to form a new piece. Another good way to generate ideas is by finding another artwork that could inspire a composer to produce another musical pieces. One way to do this is to provide musical accompaniment to a poem while reading it. Alfred Newman, John Williams, and other composers of Hollywood movie soundtracks have created their unforgettable musical masterpieces by accompanying music to films. Changing pieces between different musical styles is another way to create another musical piece. Mixture of different musical styles can be a great way to create a new composition. This is the reason why music has evolved too fast. Concoction of different traditional music of each country has produced evolution in music. This means that composers should always be open to new opportunities and possibilities by opening their hearts and minds to the latest developments in music. Finding usual phrases or patterns in an instrument and by modifying it to create a new musical piece. Leonard Bernstein said, "The meaning of music is in the music and nowhere else. "The meaning of music is in the music, and nowhere else." Improvising chord patterns, scales, harmonies in a musical piece can produce another musical piece. Finding a Suitable Place to Compose Here lies the issue whether a composer is made by generating ideas that would become the skeleton of his piece after hearing numerous melodies in a musical environment; or born because of his innate gift of putting notes together to make a fantastic melody. Initially we can say that composers are gifted people. Only a special kind of person can spot the needed notes. Being critically keen to the inputs coming from different sources is a quality of composers that makes composing a gift. Therefore for him to be successful, he should select a place that is conducive for generating ideas. He should ascertain what his musical interests are and see to it that it jibes with the intended output for his musical project. If a would-be composer wants rock then most likely he will create melodies and tunes for the rock genre. Within this milieu of interest, artists can be oriented and introduced to the experiences and events that can be the germ for their future musical feats. Inspiration and creativity largely comes from an environment conducive for attaining them. A good composer creates an environment that facilitates the constant inflow of creative juices in his brain. He should proactively design an environment that suits his creative endeavours. One way is choosing the right kinds of colours also largely affect his mood. Exposing his eyes to different things that has the colour favourable to the needed mood in creating his new masterpiece. Nature is another healthy environment to become creative. Our forefathers used the tunes and notes that they hear from the noises they hear from their surroundings. Debussy's Clair de Lune is best heard while meditating under a moonlit sky. The enchanting mood of an environment bathed with moonlight perhaps inspired the composer to write the notes for this masterpiece. After making his environment favourable to his interests and inclination and after finding the genre suitable for him, he should then update his knowledge about the musical type that he is interested in. He should take into account every detail of his selected field as much as possible. He should know the latest and hottest trends, the most popular and most sought after artists and composers, and the personality and character of his prospective listeners and patrons. To accomplish this, he should first immerse himself in the genre where his wants to contribute. Mastering every aspect of his craft and that of his contemporaries and possible competitors is a good step to undertake. It is a very important part of developing his craft and his profession. Marketing Composers' Craft Now that he is well equipped with the necessary materials and ideas for his piece, the technical aspects of his profession, composers should now concentrate on the marketability of his impending masterpiece. Unless composition is just a hobby or a pastime, marketing is not a major factor. But if composition is a profession, it is necessary to consider its marketing aspect. The first consideration in marketing is to whom would a composer sell his creation. With all the accumulated research and materials he had made, this time he should have known what clicks for and what attracts his target listeners. What he needs is to sell his creations at the most number of people in a broadest area possible. Aside from this, he should establish effective business relationship with the recording company. This sometimes poses a problem for composers. Most of artists, including composers, being introvert and loners, they have difficulty entering into a business and negotiating for the best bargain for his work. He can have problems in socializing with his marketer. If he has this problem, he can seek help from agents and middlemen for this. This relieves him of the burden of promoting his work to recording companies that may rob his time in composing his latest musical piece. After establishing ties with recording companies, a composer now has to present his well-crafted and well-designed musical pieces. After extensive preparations to come up with his masterpiece, he should now use his technical skills in composing memorable musical tunes. Composing Stage Applying music theory into practice is the crux of a composer's career. Aside from knowing the basics of composing a musical piece, a composer should play on the variations of the musical elements that he has at his disposal. Here lies the creative powers of a composer-the ability to join these different musical elements to create an astounding whole. He should know and constantly revise these key elements in music: the staff, bar lines, clefs, time signatures, note values, rests, phrasing, rhythm, articulation, key signatures, accidentals, cadences, scales (e.g. major, minor, diminished), modes, chords, extensions, inversions, sequences, arpeggios, instrument ranges, timbres of each instrument, difficult areas of an instrument and other musical elements that make up a composition. Just like a poet thinking about the combination and mixture of words that he uses, a composer uses the right combinations that would make his compositions both artistically attractive and lucrative. This is the time for meticulous decision making on how to use these elements to form a well-constructed composition. The balance between beauty and profitability is now a big issue. One of the key points that a composer should look at is the balance and harmony between the voice and/ or instruments. Instruments should complement and should not compete against each other. This is to ensure that other musical instruments will not overshadow each instrument or section in the orchestra. Thus, if a composer decides to use wind, strings and percussion sections, he should see to it that one section would add variety and texture to the orchestra as a whole. He should minimize the time wherein the same notes of a particular section are also played by another. This would enrich the texture of the sound of the entire orchestra. This would also maximize the relevance of a particular instrument to the entire musical ensemble. Another key point that he should meticulously be concerned about is the time element and the dynamics of the use of instruments. The speed and the power of the instruments define the mood and the impact of the music to the listeners. The element of continuity, contrast, surprise, stability and other factors that makes music more active, dynamic and vibrant are to be skilfully addressed by an experienced composer. The perfect time when the speed of musical instrument are to be intensified or diminished as well as when their produced sounds will be increased or softened depends on the artistic decisions done by a composer. Post-composition The responsibility of a composer to a particular musical piece that he created does not stop during the time when he has closed a deal with a recording company and after he has heard his composition being played over the radio or by his CD. He should learn the lessons that he has realized from his recently published and even his past creations to further develop his craft. References Belkin, A. (1999) Basic Notions. A Practical Guide to Musical Composition. Retrieved April 19, 2007, from http://www.musique.umontreal.ca/personnel/Belkin/bk/2.html Decker, J. (n.d.)Where and How Artists Get Ideas Retrieved April 19, 2007, from http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/Files/ideas.htm Liftoff (2006). Sources of Ideas for Compositions. Retrieved April 19, 2007, from http://bridgman.tripod.com/compose/sourcesofideas.htm Real Music Production (2006) Composing Music.. Retrieved April 19, 2007, from http://www.realmusicproduction.com/composing_music.html Read More