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Hello fellow (student) composers, I'm currently doing some research on how composition teachers teach composition/evaluate the compositions of their students. Especially considering the idea that a teacher should take into account to allow the student to develop him/herself towards a 'unique' identity. My main question is: how can a teacher bring about the highest level of quality within a student without imposing his/her ideology upon the student? In other words how does a teacher give feedback/improve the student without trying to 'manipulate' the unique identity of the student? Feel free to answer this as an open question. Here is a short survey if you don't feel like writing out a big answer: 1. Does my teacher have a big influence on the way i compose? 2.Do i consciously change the way i compose to satisfy my teacher? 3.Does my teacher force his/her musical ideology upon me or am i free to discover my own ideology? 4.Do i see a problem with my teacher adjusting my work and thereby not allowing me to express my own identity as a composer? 5.How does my teacher evaluate my compositions? (open question). I appreciate any comment. Thanks a lot! Kind regards, Lorenzo

Great term, the ear-feel. I can feel that. I didn't meant it in a sexual way, no. It is hard to describe in modern language because we tend to relate all those things back 'down' to the physicality of sex. But when I read Plato on Eros it isn't necessary the sexual deed although it is certainly a possibility included. But he uses it in a more broader and I feel deeper sense than most of us can fathom today. In every relationship there is Eros but not necessarily sex... Anyway I could have said 'erotic' but this probably even more loaded with physicality than sensual. I guess you kind of understand what I tried to describe vaguely with 'sensual' as an expression of Eros. Thanks for the article, I'm going to read 🙂

For me texture is just about making the ear feel I want. There isn't any method with how I go about this just vibes.

You will have to write a lot of short pieces and most of these will need to be able to seamlessly loop, but beyond that, it's not terribly different. A lot of video games offer way more freedom than something like film because most of the time, they just need thematically-appropriate music that can loop, and this makes it much easier to compose music that can stand on its own. Something like a visual novel would have the soundtrack change alongside dramatic shifts in visuals or the conversation and character expressions, so a new loop or stinger for these changes. However, you'd not want to overdo it and write something different for every little thing that happens in the dialogue or visuals. One thing that these kinds of games often do, is that they will keep the same loop going throughout most of the conversation or "scene", but they will duck the music out of the way for a second and have some stinger in the same key as the piece (wind run, stab, etc. sky's the limit here) come in when there's a shift in tone, especially if it's only a temporary shift. So let's say you have some scene at this game show, and you've composed a loop of spooky, monster gameshow circus music or something going in the background. But then, when the player advances the conversation, and one of the characters now gets a twisted expression on their face and becomes angry, but it's only for a a few lines of dialogue, instead of totally changing the loop for that part, you might have a violin screech or something that maybe sounds like a mistake in the music play over top of it, while the music is temporarily ducked in volume.

Hello all, new here so if you have three quarters of an hour to spare then I hope you'll enjoy my newest piece (also my largest scale). Synthetic recording created with Sibelius 7 notation software and Noteperformer sound library by Wallander instruments. Info on piece available in video description... looking forward to any comments and/or questions! Instrumentation - violin solo with symphony orchestra; 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets in Bb, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon; 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in Bb, 2 tenor and 1 bass trombones, tuba; timpani; harp (3rd movement only), strings. Sorry I have included the score as PDFs, seperate for each movement (as I was writing each movement as a separate Sibelius file)