Chapter 5 - Composing Each Time

Summary

I delivered this talk to the composition students and faculty at Eastman in the winter of 2006. It is the most recent of the talks in this section of this book, but I’ve put it first since it gives a somewhat rounded description of my composition practice. It also provides a more leisurely introduction to many concepts and aesthetic principles that inform the rest of the talks and my work as a whole.

At the outset, I submit that I rarely describe my work to others to this degree of specificity; in fact, I tend not to reveal such things except on special occasions when I feel it is useful or appropriate to go into detail. Even when I teach composition, in either class or private tutorial, I rarely speak of my own music. I believe a composition teacher’s first obligation is to help students find their own way into composition. The beginning stages of composition instruction certainly involve studying the literature of music—contemporary music, as well as the works of composers of past centuries. The basic elements of compositional craft have also to be undertaken, but without bias for one compositional direction over another. Compositional survey courses are good for imparting this kind of knowledge, with workshops in which students try out various compositional techniques. In one-on-one composition lessons, a student’s current and usually unfinished work is shared with the teacher who must be careful to offer only positive, constructive commentary, without underrating or undermining the student for lack of imagination or knowledge. Ultimately, the teacher’s main function is to inspire the student to compose and sometimes to ensure the student is composing as opposed to—or in addition to—thinking about composing or worrying about it. From this point of view, there is little reason for the teacher to introduce her own compositions as models. First of all, such models may enforce the composer’s own style at the expense of the student’s musical needs and desires, and this often breeds resentment. Besides, a seasoned composer’s working methods will probably not be useful to the student, since such compositional practice is often hard won and while relatively effortless for the teacher, almost impossible for the student to manage, not to mention master.