How Do You Analyze Another's Composition?

I'm just wondering, when you look at someone else's composition, what is the best way to analyze it? What exactly do you look for when you scan over the score sheet? How do you go about to make sense of the melodies and harmonies used as well as the relation between the different layers of music?

Are there any particular steps that you should take when analyzing a composer's piece?

This is a very broad question... Is there any way you could limit it more?

I mean, if someone wrote a simple traditional tonal piano piece, I'd analyze it differently from a crazy atonal effects piece for orchestra.

The problem is that you can't "analyse" every piece the same way. Not every music does have themes and/or development, not every music follows the same harmonic rules, not for every music aspects of timbre have the same importance, etc. It would be a bit pointless to analyse Penderecki's "Anaklasis" harmonically, to analyse timbre in a baroque concerto grosso, or to look for theme development in a Perotin motet. So ideally, you have to find an individual approach for every piece. Of course, knowledge can help a lot, but if we just let "what we know about music" determine the way we listen to a piece, we might easily get stuck in dead ends.

For many music, actually finding a good way to analyse it is probably the hardest part of the analysis itself.

But while I therefore disagree with some things Nico said, I completely agree that it's not necessary to talk about "technical" things if you feel unable to. Just give your general impressions, whatever they are.

A contemporary piece of music without sturdy 18th century form or harmonic movement or counterpoint still has all these things! After all, think of why these guidelines were created and used so heavily throughout history - all of them add to making a good, well-conceived, focused composition. And that's something every composer strives to write.

So in that sense you can find form in every piece of music. Even if it's 'through-composed'. For a piece of music generally has certain elements to it which act as the basis for the piece, even if these are not melodies or harmonies.

Generally, use your instinct. Tell them what you think works for THAT piece. Of course, it would help to know all about ALL kinds of music, not just focusing on theory and counterpoint and the like. This will help you understand all kinds of music better.