Interview on Teaching Composition: A Conversation with Samuel Adler

Summary

Common wisdom has it that composition cannot be taught. Marilyn Shrude had the privilege to interview a man who has worn many musical hats—conductor, composer, scholar, teacher—at his resi¬dence in Perrysburg, Ohio in January of 2002. Their conversation focused especially on the teaching of composition. Perhaps the readers of the interview (originally published in American Music, Summer 2008, 223-45) may think differently about the oft-repeated statement that teaching composition is impossible. Samuel Adler must be counted among the great composition teachers of our age.

MS: I have a few questions for you. Some of them are rather specific and some are open-ended enough that they will take us to different territories.

SA: Fine.

MS: First of all, do you use a particular methodology in teaching composition?

SA: I would say no—though I do when I teach a class, if there is such a thing. We used to have classes for non-majors—I really liked to do that—and also classes for young kids. Before I let them do what they want to do, we actually have exercises. I use the same exercises with my freshmen before I let them write anything. Usually they come in having written a lot, but I just want them to be a little more conscious of the process. And so I do use a method, but only for the beginners in composition and also with beginning students in college. It seems to work well, because what we do for the first semester, at least, is to divide each lesson into two sections. The first is just exercises and the second is their own writing.

MS: So give me an example.

SA: All right. The first exercise is melody. I use the method that Roger Sessions used, which is that the more limitation you can set for yourself, the better it is for the composition. He once said that composition is two things: one, “choice,” and the other, “inevitability.” Inevitability you can't teach; you have to feel it—like Mo-zart. He always felt it right, so, therefore, every composition was good. For some of us who are lesser than Mozart, it isn't always inevitable. Let's say you are writ¬ing in sonata form and inevitably the first theme goes to the second.