Music Composition

Discovered this music while reading “The Study of Ethnomusicology” by Nettl.

“The xylophonist of a Chopi orchestra made up music as he went along, but he was constrained by rules articulated by his leader”

that's all.

Paper Size

• For Large ensemble Works, use Tabloid (US Paper Size).
• Letter is really more for Chamber Scores and Parts.
• Publishers will use different sizes, but for your average composer who is printing on their own, tabloid is the way to go.

Title Page

• Make it nice for a good impression on conductors and music directors

Info Page Should include the following:

• Instrumentation
• Duration
• Notes to Performers
• Symbol Key
• Program Notes
• Bio and Your Website Information
• Related Works (Optional)
• Program Notes (Yes they can really suck, but you should write them then!)

Transposition

• Indicate whether your score is Transposed, especially if you aren’t using a Key Signature
• Generally, Transposed Scores are more common, but some conductors prefer Scores in C.
• If you can, ask them, and if you can’t assume Transposed. Do not skip this small step, it is crucial.

Score Order

• Always in score order for large ensemble scores.
• The only exception is in Chamber Music, where unusual combinations of instruments can occur. Chose what makes sense.

Tempos

• Don’t miss the opportunity of telling your players how to play/characterize the music.
• It is easy to write Quarter equals 120 and leave it at that. Give them more, a word, a direction. It doesn’t have to be much.

Time Signatures

• If in Film World, use Gigantic Time Signatures.
• For Wind Ensemble and Orchestra in Concert World, Huge Time signatures are preferred.
• In Choral and Chamber Scores, the standard size is fine.
• General rule of thumb, if conducted go with Huge, if not, standard is fine.

Measure Numbers

• In any large ensemble score, you should have every single Measure number written out.
• For Choral and Chamber, it depends. Chose whichever keeps the score clear and not cluttered.

General Formatting

• Use 6-8 Bars per page, especially in large ensemble scores. Let it breathe.
• For conductors, don’t hide staves, keep the layout the same.
• In Film World, remove measure rests so that the score can be written on in the event of an on-the-fly reorchestration.

Section Checks

• Check Commands for the Strings. Arco to Pizza, Pont. To Ord. Etc.
• For Percussion and Woodwinds, double check the time you have given people to change instruments.
• For Brass, check your mute changes.

Dynamics

• Watch out for Orphaned Dynamics across the score.
• Be as clear and accurate as possible when using dynamics and give clear destinations.

Lastly, Get a Friend to look it over if possible. Ideally you can print it and go over it

SOURCE: https://www.davidvessmusic.com/post/how-to-make-your-scores-look-professional

I’m pimping another community that focuses on writing songwriting, I hope that is okay. I created https://lemmy.world/c/songaweek which is modeled after the reddit sub songaweek.

Every Thursday a new theme is posted. We all spend the next week writing a new song. By Thursday we have our song as done as we can get it and then we post it here for everyone to hear. We then will give feedback on the song, no negative critiques please. These songs were written, recorded and mixed in 7 days. We want to encourage song writing. Your song does not need to use the provided theme, write about about whatever you want. The provided theme is just to get you started.

This weeks theme is the chord progression i-VII-VI-V. I’d love to see all of you there. https://lemmy.world/post/1884588

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo29WtIcf70

Sean McMahon, chair of the Screen Scoring Department at Berklee College of Music, gives you expert tools to perfect your string arrangements. He explains and demystifies the nebulous ZED clef, a super handy measuring tool to see if your string writing is well balanced. What’s more, he also shares his knowledge on octave doublings vs unison string lines among the different string instruments, and he gives some advanced tips for string runs.___

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6T6suvnhco

Francis Bebey was filmed for this piece at Real World Studios during the Recording Week of 1995. It's a delightful film - one of our favourites - where he demonstrates how to play his one note bamboo flute. "I'm teaching you how to do it, you should pay me" he says with a big smile.

Francis Bebey was a noted writer and musician from Cameroon who sadly died in May 2001. Peter Gabriel spoke for all who encountered him at the Real World Recording Week in 1995 when he said "We were hypnotised... he embodied wisdom in lots of ways and it was a real delight".

Karl Wallinger, Peter's co-pilot in the Recording Week sessions spoke of his amazement at the music Francis produced from his tiny, single note, bamboo flute, describing the sound as "one of the prime numbers of music".

Francis Bebey features in the track 'Whole Thing' on Big Blue Ball: https://realworldrecords.com/releases/big-blue-ball/

Francis's son Patrick Bebey features on the Arcade Fire single 'Everything Now' playing the same one note flute his father demonstrates in this video.

Stable diffusion for real-time music generation