Monday, June 30, 2014

Managing Transcendence in the Music Composition Process


In the beginning, maybe, music transcends the composer.  There is a piece of which score is not written black on white.  There is a piece which is not heard literally by anybody as sound.

In the beginning, the composer has a few ideas that charms him/herself or even a lucky piece order from somebody else which may dictate a form or a group of instruments to use.

The music to be, transcends the remembering ability and perceptions by any means of the composer.  He tries to catch something that he partially imagines and tries to reach the whole of it.

The transcendence of the composer by music is similar to the situation of a two year old child trying to speak his first words, phrases...  The two year old child tries to express himself and speak but he is not able to do so.  He/she solves the speech difficulty by percieving the difference between the external world and him/herself.  The development of ‘self’ helps him/her to overcome the transcendence of speech.  During this process he also develops a somewhat ’ language’ which helps him to express himself.

Similarly,  the composer begins to develop a ‘self’ for his music, beginning with the initial ideas.  As the music progresses with its first page the material used establishes a ‘self’, which tells the composer what belongs to this piece or not.

As the composition process progresses, this ‘self’, the identity of the piece gets stronger and the piece gets a personality seperate from the composer.  The composer becomes the servant of the new born music to write down what is necessary, what is beautiful.

The materials used in the first movement sets a ‘language’ which dictates many elements for the other movements and even for the other pieces that the composer will dream...

At the end, may be, music transcends the composer again.  The composer has written  a music which may set an example for other composers to pursue...

Maybe, Penderecki, Serocki and Ligeti have done this.



Ali R+ SARAL