Advice For Composers

Composer and weblogger Frederic Himebaugh of The Fredösphere has some advice for composers:

• My friend Dave (a fellow amateur composer) and I like to talk about what we call the Masterpiece Syndrome. He and I are always dreaming of writing that one bold, visionary piece of music that will make the whole world fall to its knees in awe. What an inspiration killer. It makes an artist extremely peevish. Under its spell, I sit at the piano, staring at the keys for minutes, then finally play a single note. "F-sharp," I sigh, "what a cliché!"

• The Kwest for Komplexity is a disease closely related to the Masterpiece Syndrome. Whenever I find myself thinking "...and then here I will put two minutes of really sophisticated, really complicated stuff that will be real impressive..." I know I'm in trouble. What will follow is an hour of throwing notes at the computer monitor to see which ones stick, followed in turn by a playback session that reveals a big shapeless blob of soulless nonsense. Heed this warning: do not compose this way. It is a waste of time.

All "New Music" composers take note.

RTWT here.