The Vulture

well my advice would be to do as Frank Zappa and john williams had and make a reputation in some sort of commercial music...pop music...film music.

it's a figure of speech, mark :happy:. I used to have some program for windows, but i haven't used it in forever and it's probably obsolete. Nowadays I just program it into a midi sequencer.

^I'll respect your wishes. I was not attempting to change the subject, merely expressing my opinion and defending myself from being called ignorant. However, that is not what this thread is about. If you read what I wrote in my original diatribe, you can see that I think it's not very feasible to make a living as a concert composer, unless you're already established as one and have a following (see John Adams, Steve Reich, etc.) due to some huge changes in the record industry.

^which was my point.

i like to work stuff out on paper first then plug it into a computer to hear what it sounds like.

^true, true...well how about the bongoes then?

I dislike much music of the classical period. While they attempt to convey interesting ideas, most music of that period was commissioned by Kings, Popes, etc. They demanded that music sounded a certain way. Did you know that for a while it was actually FORBIDDEN for people to use the tritone? Virtually no dissonance, harmonically or rythymically, was allowed in those days. For that I find the music to be pretty boring to listen to. It is not an igonorant comment. I've looked into that music, and to me it is filth. I agree with your second comment. I have seen the work of John Williams and Ennio Morricone presented as concert peices, and indeed it works quite well. However, the film music that is interesting is few and far in between, and I'd say about 90% of it is not all that great. But i'm distracting from the main topic of this forum...sorry to get us so offtrack :D

The best pick up-line is "I play drums", the worst is "i play guitar". There are ten million guitar players in the world, there will never be a shortage of guitar players (just a shortage of good ones :-p). people will really notice when you play drums.

When i first heard the music of Igor stravinsky, i thought--hey I can do this, all you have to do is write something down on a peice of paper and get someone to play it...why doesnt everyone do this?". yeah, i was pretty naive. but that was when i was...oh fourteen so i'll put myself in that age group

Frank Zappa. Frank Zappa was a true genius. He truly created his own harmonic and rythymic language, which he used in many different styles, including Doo Wop, Classical, Rock, Jazz, and various combinations of the two. The ridiculous rythyms of his melodies were some of the most strinkingly original ever made, and his reckless arranging has remained unmatched. He excelled in numerous areas of composition, and was a truly original voice. His music can often be scary portraits of american society, not only lyrically, but musically, as his music frequently contained quotes from pop songs, commercials, etc, and lampooned many aspects of american society. I would also reccomend the recording (if you can find it) Civilization: Phaze III, where, via a machine called the Synclavier, made one of the most complex orchestral recordings ever made. the synclavier allowed him to sample instruments and type melodies into a computer, which enabled him to have them playing rythyms far too complex for any human to play, and to take instruments far outside their normal range.

Since I'm responding negatively, i would like to point out that I am still in high school, ergo I make a living rolling burritos at a restaurant called Qdoba, and play guitar at friend's parties in exchange for money and occasionally food. It has never been possible to make a living SOLELY as a composer. Even the greatest either had huge grants from Kings and financial assistance which is impossible to come by today, or they made livings on the side doing other things. Many played piano for a living, and Charles Ives was an insurance Salesman. People could once do as Charles Ives did. Their respective Jobs generated them enough money to keep their businesses afloat. Unfortunately, in today's music industry, i no longer beleive it is even worth composing music at all. Look at how the music industry works. Everything you hear on the radio or buy in a record store has been run through countless surveys to make sure you like it, and to make sure as many teenagers, the primary consumers of music, will buy it as physically are able to. They've figured out that orchestral music doesn't sell in that demographic, and as a result, most major label record companies have all but shut down their classical divisions, and if the classical divisions are afloat, they release film music or music by dead guys (more about that later). As a result--music by new composers doesn't get played, the theory being that no one will buy it. The Music that does get played, is music by dead guys, Mozart, Beethoven, all that filth. This is done for two reasons-- the music is already well known (who hasn't heard the famous "fate" motif of the fifth symphony), the orchestras have been hacking their way through it since their conservatory days, and it's cheap...you see, when you're dead you don't collect money for having your music played. Why would anyone want to finance music that will have to be rehearsed, be promoted (as it is a new peice of music and people dont know about it) and then played (incorrectly), and on top of that pay the composer? Why waste all that money when they can earn far more money far more easily by hacking their way through a couple of classical "standards" or a soundtrack of film music (which is basically all the same these days and thus not difficult for orchestras to play). I do beleive that good music is out there that is getting composed, i've heard a lot of it on this website. However, when it does somehow manage to get through a record company and get released, it's nearly impossible to find, due to the fact that retailers can make more money by selling records by Korn than records by Steve Reich. For these reasons I beleive it is not possible to make a living as a composer anymore, unless your in the field of music or videogames. both of these will always need music for it to appeal to the emotional side of people's brains and heighten their respective experiences, so film and game music (most of which is hogwash.) will always be around. Many of you will be hostile to this...many want to beleive that they can be composers, but I say--FACE THE FACTS. I love composing music and I adore classical music and new music...but if this kind of music is going to survive, SOMETHING MUST CHANGE. the question is what?

Frank Zappa.

While I would reccomend Pierre Boulez's recording of the piece, the piece is written so strongly that any version is a good one. The whole piece is this excursion between the winds and the percussion section--no strings, which is pretty innovative to me; i'm not sure exactly when it was composed so that may have been pretty common for that day. It's one of the earliest examples of what varese himself called "spatial music" or "organized sound"; which is an almost geometric approach to composition; rather than focusing on chords or harmonies, he focuses on rythym and blocks of sound, which reapper in variations of themselves while drifting apart at various points. definetly something new, and its my personal favorite pieces by varese. anyone else dig this one?

Dude!!!! All my friends go to your school...i'll def be there at the concert...