Classical Music Composition

The Differences between Classical and Romantic Music What most of the public calls "classical music" covers a large amount of works, from the Medieval or Renaissance, or Baroque period all the way to modern experimental art music. The exact starting point of "classical music" would be contested depending on who one asks, but it is definitely several centuries in the past. The differences between Classical and Romantic-era music relate to the emotions evoked, modulation, chromaticism, historical and philosophical background, the place of music in society, and some economic factors. Classical period music typically has a light and pure, and from some more modern perspectives, emotionally simplistic emotional impact. There are many exceptions, like Mozart's Dissonant String Quartet, the Queen of the Night Aria, and some early Sturm Und Drang works, but the prevailing mood was the light perceived simplicity of musique galant . Harmony and modulation during the C

I've been on Musescore for several years now, and managed to achieve some success on it through making a version of "The Devil went down to Georgia" with a viola in it to harmonize with the violin! (cue the jokes.) Sadly, I only have the free profile, otherwise there would be more than 20 compositions on it. My Youtube account has an unlimited amount of videos that would otherwise be on Musescore. Musescore is a great free music notation software and a lively community of composers and listeners. I recommend it. The Youtube videos you can send from Musescore are the best part of the free account, though. They make a nice scrolling graphic.  My Musescore Profile

There is a school of thought in regards to musical intervals and timbres which believes that there is no absolute truth or beauty in music, and that musical enjoyment  is only based on the preferences of the individual listener. One of the main arguments for musical relativism is the argument that music is not "noise", even extreme metal or experimental music, and that the intent as art is a sufficient cause for something to be appreciated as music. The result of this is that "music" can become so abstracted from the typical definition that typical noises heard in daily life, such a a rhythmic cooler humming or a loose car part that make a semi-predictable tapping sound, might end up on the threshold of "music" if they were performed in front of a live audience. My defense of the similarity of some music to noise should be somewhat clear by itself, but here is a picture of the waveforms of four different instruments: The flute's waveform is the cl

Introduction Synthesizers are capable of a huge variety of sounds, and that's why I became so obsessed with them several years ago. Nearly any possible instrument or noise can be imitated, and they are capable of hundreds of unique sounds that don't exist in the real world, as well. I spent many hours turning knobs, renting different synths, and recording songs with them. But somehow, after a while, the novelty started to wear off. Sure, I still liked certain sounds, but after watching countless videos of people jamming with synths, I started to feel like just because they're capable of a huge scope of various things doesn't mean that the same things will actually produce the best type of music. Honestly, a portion of the music felt repetitive, boring, inhuman and derivative. Some synths are pejoratively nicknamed "bleep machines" and this felt all too true at times. Considering the money put into many synthesizers, I felt that the actual expressive musical va

The notes of the Phrygian mode go from E to E. Or in the key of C, a Phrygian scale would be C,Db,Eb,F,G,Ab,Bb,C. Examples of pieces in the Phrygian mode are Bach's "Es woll uns Gott genädig sein", Bruckner's Vexilla regis, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No.2, Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherezade, and some monastic hymns and ancient Greek music. The character of this mode is highly unusual compared to the major scale. It is associated with Spanish flamenco music, Hungary, and Egypt, having a very Eastern sound. This mode resembles somewhat the natural minor scale, except for its second scale degree, which is flat in the Phrygian but not the minor scale. For writing music that is evocative of fascinating, moody, perhaps even scary locales, it's hard to do better than the Phyrgian mode. There are certain scales that are similar to it and have properties in common, but they are quite rare. These include the Hungarian minor and harmonic minor scales. In contrast, you sh

Introduction Example of pro-432 hz website If you aren't familiar with the 432 Hz conspiracy, that link would be an interesting primer. Basically, music now is played to the tuning standard of 440 vibrations per second. Hundreds of years ago, not much was standardized, so a large variety of tuning standards would be used. (no, it wasn't always 415.0hz, Mozart played at 422.3) They ranged from way lower to higher than our current standard. Tuning before the standard of 440hz in 1939 was a very complicated mess. Even after that, it was still split in different locations between 440 and 442, and then the modern Baroque tuning of 415 came around. (415 was only one of many Baroque pitches at the time.) What is a second? Part of the 432hz conspiracy is to make people believe that 432 was actually commonly used and that 440 was invented by Nazis and so on. Aside from the fact that 432 wasn't some old universal standard, 440 isn't even set in stone either. A lot of orch