Composing

So I'm something of a composer. Or at least, I like to think that I am. Nothing I've written thus far has been anything extraordinary, spectacular, or even all that original. But still, I try, and I'm only 16, and you're technically a young composer until you're 40, so I think I got some time! :)

Still, I'm constantly looking for ways to improve my composing. I always want to make the piece I'm writing better than the last one I wrote. For example, the last really big thing I wrote was a symphony (yay for writing a symphony when I was 14 and 15!). Basically, the 1st and last movements of the symphony sucked. I mean, I think I changed keys maybe once in each 8-minute movement, which I must say make for a pretty boring piece. The 2nd movement was actually decent (my school orchestra conductor/my sometimes-composition-teacher liked it enough to have our orchestra play it), although still I always have things to improve. Since then I've written a few shorter pieces, one for string orchestra, one for a 2 violin/2 cello quartet, and the beginnings of a few others. In each, my main goal has been to increase the amount of times I change keys. I need to modulate more in order to keep the piece interesting and to effectively evolve the personality of the piece, and it really does help a lot.

What I really wanted to talk about is how people perform young composers' works, though. This winter break, I got to take a trip to Virginia to visit several friends of mine from music camp this last summer. Before we met, we decided that the two of us who are interested in composition would try to write pieces that we could learn and then perform for whoever would listen throughout the week. As a result, I wrote that aforementioned piece for 2 violins and 2 cellos. My friend wrote a piece too. Well...most of a piece anyway. lol

As we worked on the pieces I realized something: I really hate playing my own music. I'm constantly seeing all the things I don't like about it, and can never think of ways I could make it better. Because of this, I've realized I don't really take my own compositions seriously. What was refreshing throughout that week, though, was that they tried to play it as musically and beautifully as they possibly could. It was as if my music was taking on a whole new form. Them taking the music so seriously made it sound better...I really don't know how, but it did. For that, I'm thankful to them. They gave me something of a confidence-boost. I've had other friends read some of my works before, but they seemed to only do it reluctantly. Maybe one or two of them would try to truly make it sound good, but the entire ensemble just never worked because they weren't trying as they might if it was, say, Mendelssohn or Beethoven. Of course, my music isn't even comparable to Mendelssohn or Beethoven, but what I've realized is that if anyone tries to play it as such, it takes on a new shape that wasn't there before. It's nice. I've heard my music played a few times both ways, and the difference is extremely evident.

Now I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining. I appreciate anyone who is willing to take 10 minutes out of their day just to read some amateur piece that I never really liked that much anyway. But what I do want to say is that anyone who is reading a piece by young or amateur composers should try to play it as seriously as possible. If they don't, it disappoints the composer, not by the way the piece was played, but by the way he/she wrote it.

And to leave you with a quote: "A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians." -Frank Zappa

-Phil