wilf

I pose this not as a question, but as the title to an article I recently finished on the topic that might be of interest to people here. I take a look at the instrumentation and musical ideas of cinema horror music and break them down. I'd be interested in any additional thoughts people have on the topic. Cheers! Wil http://wilforbis.com...orror_music.htm

Great stuff - thanks! W

Cool - thanks! I will definitely check those out. I also found this, some of which looks interesting. http://videolectures.net/Top/Arts/Music/

I'm specifically thinking about something along the lines of a lecturer taking a particular piece - say a sonata - and saying, "here's the exposition, here's the first theme, here's the transition, note how the composer builds the theme off the motif like so (maybe with a projection of the sheet music). Now here's the development, note how the composer mutates the original theme..." etc. But anything that's an in depth analysis (any classical style) of music would interest me. BTW -I have heard all of Bernstein's "Young People's" concerts, and while they are great I'm thinking of something a little more in depth (and with less footage of children wriggling in their seats.) Thanks in advance.

In a sense, what I'm proposing is a book. Books contain information, otherwise known as data, and software just provides alternate views of data. Books are generally sequential presentations of data (excluding indexes) and the problem is you're not always aware of the particular fact or advice you read several months ago at the moment you need it. A software tool might be able to look at one section of your piece and basically say, "I just want to remind you of XXXX right here." That's is pretty much what screenwriting software does - it say, "it's been ten minutes (pages) since an explosion or sex scene - people are going to be getting bored." Whether you chose to follow that suggestion is up to you. I totally agree - you should learn the common practice and that involves and lot of listening and studying and maybe using a tool that jabs you every so often and says, "uh-oh - that's not how it's done."

That's a complicated, fascinating topic, and one probably always under revision. I suggest you check out the very interesting book "This is your brain on music", if you haven't already, for one look at the topic. In a nutshell, it seems that our brain does have hard wired preferences for certain musical qualities (consonance for example) and some hard wired aversion to other others (too much dissonance.) But I'm vastly simplifying the book (obviously one doesn't need to think hard to find counter examples to what I've just stated - too much consonance is boring.) But for a more general answer: let me ask you a theory question. Say you have a chord pattern - C | Dmi | G7. From the list below, what chord is the least likely next chord (presuming we're working in generally tonal music)? a) C b) Ami 7 c) B #9 flat 5 I think most of us will agree it's option C. This doesn't mean one should never chose this option, or that it's never been done in music, but I think it's fair to say most composers would avoid it (aside from for jarring/comic effect.) We could probably run down the list of the all potential chords and rank them by likelihood of being chosen in a composition (based of analysis of existing compositions, advice from academics, etc.) The end result would be a set of, well, I hate to use the word rules... let's just say suggestions. So you might look at this weighted list of possible chords and say, "Well, C is too obvious, Ami 7 also, but down midway down the list is C# dim - hmmm, I've never tried that before. Let's see how that sounds." This kind of computation is exactly what computers are good for. Obviously the harmonic example above is quite simple, but there's no reason that logic can't be applied to more complex ones. Now, the obvious danger is that this tool would start to steer people towards certain musical decisions and they would start to become cliche. Yeah, that's a danger but it's an imperfect world; Right now a piece of music becomes popular (if only in certain circles) and other composers/songwriters pillage its musical content and that becomes cliche. So it has been a probably always will be. W

Well, I think you guys are getting hung up on this notion that you have to do what the software suggests. You do not. If you want, when it suggests something you can scream, "I hate you computer!" and throw it out the window. But let me posit this scenario. You're in the early stages playing around with a piece. You're working on a particular passage and trying different things. Your friend walks in the room and says, "Why don't you try a G min maj 7 there?" You do and it works. I'm saying maybe there's a way software can be this friend. Could you get too dependent on it? Yeah. Could you follow it's suggestions too closely and produce boring music? Yeah. But that's not the software's fault - that's the composer's fault. Frankly, maybe the ONLY use for this software is as an educational tool (I don't really buy that but I'll allow the possibility.) Even with that use alone I think this idea could be be useful enough for enough people. Anyway, back to doing some composing... without software I might add.

I had a feeling when I posted this question it would earn a certain amount of pushback. I'm not proposing something that tells you what to write, but rather suggests ideas in the same way a screenplay writing tool does. For centuries composers/songwriters etc have kept notebooks containing ideas to try, interesting rhythms that have yet to find a song, modulation paths to experiment with, etc. I'm asking, "Could those be grouped together in a program?" To be honest, I'm genuinely surprised this product doesn't seem to exist.

That definitely looks interesting. Frankly, I need the counterpoint tutelage! As I thought a bit more about this idea today I'm thinking it would work best as a plug in for Garage Band, Logic etc - no point reinventing the wheel with the stuff they do well. I'm actually all to familiar with the software industry - familiar enough to know that a good product doesn't always make money and thus it difficult to get them funded. Ah, well...

Counterpoint rules is certainly one part of what I would like to see. I imagine this working along the lines of my understanding of how screenplay software works. You say something like, "I would like to write an action adventure movie" and it spits out a "template" built around things like having an exciting sequence every ten minutes, and keeping dialogue terse. These are simply suggestions and can be ignored. In similar sense I'd like to say, "I'd like to write a sonata," and have software offer a template (First theme, Second theme, transition, Coda etc) and suggest things like "Your first theme is in E mi, so your second should modulate to G (according to conventional rules.)" It might even suggest possible paths to handle that modulation. I think we've all got a reservoir of ideas (either in a notebook or on paper) on how to handle different situations - say, "how to rewrite a minor key melody in the major key", and this tool could offer and apply these ideas. It could also go through a piece and highlight things like parallel fifths and other "errors." (Maybe that's what this counterpoint software already does.) To be clear, I'm not saying the the software writes the melodies themselves, but rather suggests structure and provides general guidance. I know there's a guy who wrote a piece of software that actually writes music, and I would think this idea would be easier to implement. http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/triumph-of-the-cyborg-composer-8507/

I've read plenty of books and learned a lot from them and I'm constantly listening to music with a curious ear and absorbing plenty. Nonetheless, I think there's more than one way to skin a cat and different methods are worth exploring. I think this is a legitimate question.

I have what might be a laughably simple question but does software aiding the process of music composition exist? I'm talking about something similar to screenplay or novel writing software but for music. So I might plug in something like "Sonata" and it would offer various templates for sonata forms, prod me to modulate in the appropriate places etc. Does Sibelius do anything like this? Thanks. Wil

Thanks for a detailed review. These very specific rules of "Bachian" harmony I'm familiar with but I confess not all that diligent about applying. Good point about the 25 bar!

Thank - very useful comments. My ultimate goal with these attempts is more to write contemporary instrumental pieces that have an understanding of classical forms but are less beholden to the specifics of classical harmony, so I'm weighing how much effort I should put into precision. But any commentary on specifics is helpful. I definitely see/hear your point about leading notes.

This was my first attempt at a Bach style Invention. I definitely break some rules and have a somewhat loose interpretation of what constitutes a theme but I appreciate any comments. E min Invention E min Invention