David McMullinApr 25, 2023

Last week @terjefjelde asked me about my #composing techniques, use of #musicTechnology, and thoughts about #musicProduction, and I promised to reply when I had more time. Here’s a too-long thread about this and other things that came to mind…

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@composers @contemporarymusic #composers #ContemporaryMusic

https://mastodon.social/@terjefjelde@mastodon.social/110220685067926603

Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
In terms of my #composing methods, I’m basically a dinosaur. I scribble sketches with pencil and paper, check them out on a piano, and I used to prepare scores and parts in careful calligraphy with a fountain pen. No tech involved except what’s been around for centuries.
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Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
For the last 20 years or so, I have at least used #musicEngraving software. This isn’t so much faster for score entry, and it doesn’t especially look better: what it gains in crispness it loses in personality. But it makes extracting parts much easier and less error prone, and it facilitates editing. If I decide a certain phrase needs two more measures, I can just stick them in. In my fountain pen days that would have meant recopying everything.
3/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
One thing I do appreciate about #notation software is the playback feature, which can be helpful for judging questions of pacing, or identifying phrases or ideas that need a little more or less time. It also helps me protect against a worst-case, overly literal, unfeeling interpretation—by demonstrating just what that would sound like. If I can get even the #MIDI playback to sound okay, it’ll surely be safe in the hands of a sympathetic human.
4/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
So playback is good for checking pitches and harmonies, pacing, and a robotic reading of rhythm. Surprisingly, it’s not that great for tempo. The tempo at which I hear music in my head is almost always faster than the tempo that feels right when it’s carrying the weight of real sound. #MIDI playback also tends to sound better faster than live instruments do—I guess because it’s also somehow not fully “real” sound.
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Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
And until recently, the timbres available for #MIDI playback have been consistently horrible. That hasn’t bothered me much, because I’ve only ever used it as an aid to aural imagination. Sometimes I even deliberately set the mappings to something cheesy and terrible, so I can’t accidentally get used to the MIDI version and let my imagination get lazy.
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Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
One disadvantage of using software playback as a compositional aid is that it discourages the use of non-standard notation that the software wouldn’t know how to interpret, even if it might communicate more clearly or elegantly to #performers. I try never to let my musical choices be funneled one way or the other by what’s convenient for a software program. But what’s convenient and helpful to the performers is always a main concern.
7/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
Everything I’ve said so far is about composing for live #performance, and specifically about preparing music (on paper) to be brought to life by #performers who are trained to interpret it. That’s most of what I do in music. But I would love to work more with #improvising players and explore that side of my musicianship again. Either way though, I’ve always depended on performers, and #liveMusic has always been my focus.
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Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
I can’t express enough gratitude to the players who have made my musical life possible. I’ve had wonderful performances, many of which were recorded. And that’s what nearly every recording I have is, except for one proper studio track and a couple of demos where I was able to get a few takes and edit them together. I’ve always thought one of these days I should make a real studio album, but it’s very expensive and complicated, and that’s not where I’ve focused my attention.
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Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
Most of my listening has been live too; in the last 10-15 years, I found myself getting out of the habit of listening to records, but I would hear two or three live performances every week. I live in a city with a very active musical culture, and I used to work at a conservatory, so there was always something good to hear. But now we’re in year 4 of the pandemic, I’m caring for vulnerable immunocompromised family members, and I haven’t heard a concert since 2019.
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Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
I’ve got nothing against #electronicMusic, but I respect how difficult it is to do well. When you #compose for a good #musician, you don’t just get back the right frequencies, durations, intensities and timbral spectra. They come connected, shaped, and imbued with centuries of oral tradition and thousands of hours of individual practice on the instrument.
11/18
Show threadTerje FjeldeApr 25, 2023

@mcmullin I have a weird double life, where I mainly pay attention to classical and "performed" music as a listener, but as an amateur musician/composer, I'm squarely in the electronic field, and I agree 100% with this.

But I do also have a theory in defense of the complexity of recorded electronic music! (1/2)

Show thread*_jߍyrope
@Terje Fjelde Could that be, because it's just near-impossible to find suitable musicians play your pieces, outside the "PhD-universe"?
Apr 25, 2023 at 11:19amWeb
Show threadTerje FjeldeApr 25, 2023

@jrp My music?? Two things, probably:

1. As a music maker, I'm very attracted to the theoretic possibilities of electronic music and synthesis – it suits my introspective nature and my patience.

2. I don't think I have the confidence to write for instruments that I don't play.

But there's more than that – since I stopped playing actively, music has become an increasingly introspective and solitary affair for me, and I quite like it. So I don't really search for external collaborators at all.

Show thread*_jߍyropeApr 25, 2023
@Terje Fjelde There is - or should be - a whole genre of #music played by non-computers and #introspective, too.
In that regard it turns out minimal oftenly.

See #^https://confrontrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/twenty or #^https://thenecksau.bandcamp.com/album/silent-night for reference
96kps Biochips

Show threadTerje FjeldeApr 25, 2023

@jrp Indeed! I'm definitely drawn towards minimalistic music, as a listener and creator – alongside my affection for huge, expansive romantic music, it must be said. Me and my double lives!

Thanks for the listening tips! I'll be sure to check them out.