About

Hello,
my name is Azure James. I'm a student and composer, and I made this blog to share my journey of musical discovery and shed a little light on both topics that are frequently discussed and some that seem unjustly ignored.
Music is very important to me, I'm almost always playing, listening, talking about, or writing it, and it forms one of the most important, essential parts of the human experience.
Keep on writing!
Thank you,
Azure

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Do synthesizers have a place in classical music?

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...
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Contrapunctual vs. Chordal Thinking

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The other day, I clearly realized for the first time that the majority of instrument-players think using chords. Their idea of music, although it may have solos and melodies in it, primarily consists of a chordal vocabulary. (Fux's famous treatise on counterpoint. Try reading it in Latin. (my comprehension= 4%) No, it's not pronounced like a swear word.) The idea of music that doesn't have chords or isn't related to in a chordal way is mostly alien to them. I used to be like that in a way, when I was a little kid taking piano lessons, and I learned some chord based songs (by Michael Jackson) in addition to the very rudimentary classical pieces in my lessons. I remember the feeling of hitting the one bass root note with my left hand and triads in various positions with my right. It was satisfying and simple. But that just didn't work forever, and even though my first composed piece was pretty much based off C, F, and G chords, the little songs I wrote on the ...
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Psychology of the Natural Minor Scale

Natural minor is the same scale as the Aeolian mode. The piece Greensleeves is in this scale, as well as a lot of chants, but it isn't generally used for music that's newer than the Renaissance. Generally, the harmonic minor scale has replaced it since then. In the key of A, this scale uses just white notes. In C, it uses C,D,Eb,F,G,Ab,Bb. This scale gives an ancient feeling, and it is not suited for modern harmony because of the flat 7th. Because of that, it has no leading tone. (which is a tone one semitone flat from the home key, and is used before the home key to bring tension which the tonic chord made from the home key resolves to) Composing something in natural minor, therefore, requires a shift in thinking and is easier to do with counterpoint than modern harmony. Transposing something that is usually in harmonic minor to natural minor will give it a more somber tone. As far as composing goes, I wouldn't recommend this key over harmonic minor except in situation...
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