The Art of musical composition

Here are some of my thoughts regarding the art of musical composition: First, if you create something and you are pleased with it – chances are it is good, and it likely can be communicated successfully to an audience.  However the communication of a musical composition to an audience is a multifaceted topic.

When a music performance starts a statement begins to manifest itself, and that statement implies a nebulous promise, like a prophesy or at least an expectation, that a worthwhile conclusion will be reached at some point.  A musical story unfolds, a story with myriad side trips, adventures, episodes (some of them seemingly misleading) but carrying a thread of meaning which must be followed by the listener for that person to experience the full joy of the conclusion.

Most listeners, including me, don’t like unprepared surprises. Surprises can be pleasant, but they can also be unpleasant.  Also, if music (or any form of art), requires too much from an audience, due to its lack of accessibility (obscurity of  meaning), or requires too little – in the case of it being overly simplistic, it will fail.

Naturally it’s good to know your audience. Some listeners are advanced, and can happily

spend the afternoon listening to a program of Schoenberg. But then there are the low-information listeners – whose favorite song might be “Pushin’ Too Hard” by The Seeds. You can’t do very much to reach them, but that being said, one must never forget the sage words of H.L. Menken: “No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American Public”.

Overly intense music – without any contrasting moments – bores people, and boredom is the last argument.  If the music is too simple, too predictable, if the listener always knows where it’s going, then they also become bored with it and quit. On the other hand, if the music is weird and unpredictable at every turn, then the listeners decide they can’t win the game,

and give up trying.

            I say let them win some of the battles.  Show them something a little different, then give

them surprises that are pleasant:  a deceptive cadence leading to a new key, or an instrument change taking over a line from another player.  Let the listener correctly predict the next note, but give them the surprise of an unexpected harmony supporting that note. Try inverting the melody so it’s recognizable, but different. Make every little surprise take the listeners to a better place than they expected to go.  And leave them with the (correct) feeling that they themselves (through the effort they made in following and listening) created the beautiful meaning of the work.

Bruce Lofgren