John Joachim Laland

Arnold Schöenberg said that music should be true. I definately think there is something to this. Concerning differences in taste, i think one aspect of it is differences in how people appreciate different emotions/moods - a difference in personality, or a difference in experiences. Some people may be drawn to sorrowful moods, while others may have difficulties relating to sorrowful moods because it reminds them of f.ex. loosing a family member. Furthermore, some emotions are considered more noble than others - compassion is nobler than jealousy. So i would say that the music that resonates the strongest emotionally is music that expresses emotionally what is truly humane. People write music inspired by litterature and art, therefore there is something to music that isn't solely determined by music theory. For instance the climax around 5 minutes into the 3rd movement of Debussy's string quartet reminds me of Victor Hugo's les miserables, which to me is very noble. Another thing is what Morton Feldman called "organic continuity", a natural flow of the elements contained in the music. (Good music would be organically flowing) Also, i think of the "rhetoric" of musical phrases. Bad music contains a shallow kind of obvious tonal motion, variation/imitation. Don't know if i managed to communicate my perceptions well, but hopefully it could stimulate some thought.

Thanks for your responses. NRKulus got it right. Sorry for not being more clear. I was thinking i would exploit this board by posting many exercises to have them reviewed.

I spoke with a music teacher recently about my aspiration to write music. He suggested i'd learn harmony to begin with, and that i'd do exercises arranging bass lines and 2, 3 and 4 part harmony for melodies. I should perhaps find someone to give me feedback on my attempts, so i was thinking maybe someone on this board could help me out. Also, what would be a fair hourly wage for this job?

Found a collection of "favorite classical melodies" scored for trumpet solo. I think that will do the trick.

I just started tinkering with 4 part harmony. I'd like to find a collection of (nice) melodies that i can write harmony for.