Sascha Burckhardt

I can't stress the kind of drama that stupidly loud horns can bring, or so I've found. Also, trombone tight interval crescendos work well.

Hey all, I've got a question: Does anyone have any tips for making variations on themes and altering them so they can progress to make an entire composed piece? Too many times will I write a theme that sounds good, but I can't do anything with it. I'll come up with a theme, maybe I'll be able to add some 4-part harmony to it, but I can't get anything past that. I'll have this 4-8 measure theme that I have absolutely no idea how to transform to repeat again, so it sounds like it's progressing, modulating, or moving, through a whole piece. I'll try stuff like inverting it, adding another line over it or something, but it all doesn't fit in. I feel like I've hit a wall. Does anyone have any tips for this? Also, does anyone have any good harmony / composition theory books that I could read that would give me an insight on this?