Writing with a Purpose

In the past couple weeks, Sarah and I have been discussing harmony, specifically trying to defend the use of tonality (in its broad definition) and melodies (both “tonal” and abstract) in new music.  In adding to this, I want to discuss the idea of harmonically purposeful composing.

As a caveat:  the trend/culture that I am about to address is one among many varying trends and cultures that exist in the new music world and is not necessarily a pervasive one.  It is, however, present enough that it merits discussion, just as the anti-tonal trend merits discussion despite simultaneous crossover trends, etc.  If you’re a composer reading this, you know you’ve heard someone in the new music world say, disparagingly, “Oh, he writes tonal music.”

*As a little tangent and somewhat related to my last post, I think there is the tendency for composers to confuse the word “tonal” with the word “derivative.”  These terms are not (and should not be) in any way synonymous.  Furthermore, you can be a derivative atonal composer--abstraction does not guarantee a fresh idea.

Anyway, there does seem to be a trend in new music circles, especially among those who criticize any sort of tonal construction or melodic construction, to be very offhand regarding harmonic content.  I’ve heard composers present pieces where they won’t even address harmony, saying that the piece is about texture, timbre, rhythm, or any other non-harmonic facet of music.

When Sarah and I were discussing this recently, she said something that I think is really important:  as a composer, if you’re working with acoustic instruments, or any instruments that are pitched, you have to make pitch choices and, unless you’re going for chance music, you should have a really good reason for the pitch choices that you make.  

I could not agree more.  There are practical acoustic realities to pitch choices that will be perceived in certain ways by the listener.  If we are striving to be good (and fluent) composers, we should understand those realities and use them for the expressive purposes that our particular pieces demand.  

I want to emphasize that writing with a purpose is no easy feat.  It’s something that I personally am trying to improve on every day.  I guess what I would like to see in composition circles, is a wider acknowledgement of how important purposeful composing is for writing successful music.  As Sarah’s story in her last post illuminates, the realization that there is a melody “randomly” in your piece should not cause your colleagues to start trashing melodies, but instead should cause them to push you to figure out why that melody is there, what purpose it serves, and whether or not its purpose makes aesthetic sense with the rest of your piece. 

Nine times out of ten, disparaging comments obscure greater truths…truths that can help us all become better composers if we take the time to really analyze what is going on in the music.

Posted by Natalie