Titling music

Just out of curiousity: How do you guys go about titling music?

I am talking about the more abstract titles like "Cold Moon Night", rather than the "Etude for two Violas No. 3 1/2".

Do you know from the start? Does it come once your done? Do other people do it for you? (Lazy musicians...<_<. lol:toothygrin:)

Just wonderin'...

PostScript: Feel free to ignore me; I won't care.

(I will only secretly sleep under your window, dreaming of ways that I could set forth your eventual and utter demise. :whistling:, but i never said this *wink wink*)

Upward beyond.MID

For me, titles are little more than verbal designations used to differentiate one piece from the next.

:hmmm:

...

My titles usually reflect how I feel about my music but in some drastically grandiloquent way. For instance: one of my pieces was kinda creepy, dark, tense and nocturnal. Hence, I named it "The Fortification of Nightmares" because I'm a pretentious scumbag.

When I want a title for a piece, I generally follow this process. I'll pick up the nearest book, and leaf through it, looking for appealing little phrases and snippets of language. When I find a bit that sounds like it would be a good, fitting title for the piece, I slap it on. Of course, this happens after I've finished the piece.

I often find finding titles one of the hardest aspects of creating a piece. I usually just associate freely from some terms I have in mind, till I come up with something that feels right, which sometimes doesn't even have to do much with the piece anymore (I don't mind that). The computer music piece I posted here is named "Spinnweben & Flughunde" but has absolutely nothing to do with cobwebs (Spinnweben) or fruit bats (Flughunde). I just liked the sound and look of it.

But funny that you'd mention "other people doing it for you", as that's actually the case for several of my pieces. For one or two, members of my family have come up with a name I liked, and my newest one (which isn't even finished) was given a name I loved by my composition teacher. ("Gerasterte D

I usually come up with the title of a piece before I've written a note... though that title may not survive to the actual finished piece. So "Dead Butterflies Flutter By" may end up as "duo #4 for violins".

Actually, one thing I've learned is that if you go out of your way to make a title unusual, it's more likely your piece will be dismissed without a listen. Keep that in mind when you write a symphony called "Evil Robots from Outer Space killed my mom"... it may be more mature to simply call it "Symphony #3".