Being A COMPOSER, What Does It Mean???
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- Happy Composers day!!! How would you define "being a composer"?
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I think a composer is a mediator between the things we feel and the things hear. We are more like the timber under the spark, trying to nourish the flame of a good idea and leading it to where it needs to be. Sometimes even burning ourselves in the process or shining brighter than ever. But in the end we need the listener to be on our side, To transcend our work to art. To lend them a (mental) place they need in this moment.
when you dropped that bit of wood into the crucible and it made that ringing sound, my first thought was "sample it!"
Absolutely! My favourite sounds are ringing. One for LABS definitely :D
I thought the same:)))
You need to sample that fire pit thingy!
There's a Composer's Day?? Well I'll be.
To me being a composer means being in service to people by using your craft and inspiration to create emotional journeys for them. I've always had the perspective that a successful composer means being able to do just that, regardless of the fanciness of your tools or the state of your studio/bedroom/basement. That leaves very little room for egotistical self-indulgence; I've often found it to be the case that the more I focus on using my abilities to serve the purpose of creating emotional connections with the intended listeners of a composition, the more it serves my career as a composer. It's a mental shift from, 'I need to represent myself in my music' to, 'How can I be of service with what I make'?
Lol...I had no idea either...
As an aside, does anybody else really, REALLY hope that Christian will sample that beautifully sonorous firepit?
I downloaded the video just to extract that sound from it :)
Maybe the library could be called BONKERS 😉
Yes! I was scrolling through the comments to see if anyone else felt that way
I've been sitting at the piano and making my own music since I was a kid. It was always hard for me to stay focused playing other's music because I so enjoyed just doodling and noodling on my own creations. None of them recorded, but always different every day, depending on my mood. I've been thankful to rediscover this enjoyment during the isolating COVID times and it's brought lots of hours of enjoyment. Admittedly, it's also a great way to spend money on samples and libraries too.
I love the angle the garden and wall are in relation to the house. That pleasingly askew angle says a lot about what a good composition should be. Familiar but strange.
The thing we like about being composers is learning new unique instruments for specific scores!
Looking back 54 years ago, when I first began my musical journey, I could never have imagined doing what I can do now as a composer... cassette to cassette, 4 track cassette, 8 track quarter and half inch reel to reel ( has anybody reading this utilized the Steve Tibbets method of bouncing tracks?... very interesting results..)... Now with a DAW, Sample Libraries, effects, etc. Musical Vistas come flowing from the Ether in a manner that is both a Joy and a Blessing! Happy Composers Day to All! To quote Frank Zappa; Music Is The Best!
For me, being a composer is more fundamental and broad than a job description, or career intention. I will always be a composer, regardless of whatever happens in my life, or whatever status I have, obtain or lose. I probably always have been a composer, long before I ever started calling myself one. To me, it’s a way of thinking and actioning in an internal space, that communicates and explores the emotionality of ones existence externally, in sound. While I don’t think pursuing composition will lead me or anyone else to some exalted state of Buddhahood or anything, I do suspect and perhaps believe that pursuing composition is a pathway to greater enlightenment, as pretentious as that probably sounds. I know that by composing music, I have gained a greater understanding of myself, the world around me and others. I suspect this is true of most, if not all art forms. There are however, a few absolute musts, to be a composer, in my opinion. Anyone can manipulate a sound in a pleasing way, but to be a composer there has to be a deeper intentionality, one that can only come from a specific type of mindset. A mindset that is explorative, reasonably open to new ideas or concepts, with an insatiable curiosity or wonder, and a willingness to explore private and internal states externally, mixed with an obsession for sound and for the manipulation of sound.
I was half expecting for you to slowly slide off that bench
Perhaps also another analogy for composing!
Composition is like Fire, ok got It!!!
No its making fire?
Cooperating with other musicians to record a piece of yours it's a very nice thing but not the essential thing for a composer to me. The essence of being a creator is to transform the real thing you feel which ideally is in harmony with your deep consciousness, into music. Making others feel in a similar way, help them to explore and shed light on unexplored places of existance and this is the Magic.
I've never dinged a bell before...
Don't make me regret this, Henson! :P
English swimwear has really evolved.
Being a composer is to make me happy. If it should make others happy too, then that’s a bonus.
How beautifully put, Christian. Poetry! And so true!
Let's keep it going 🔥
if music is like fire, is music theory like the art of fire making?
Being a composer for me is just telling stories through the most beautiful and universal language that exists... Music!
0:33 let's sample that!!.
One thing about fireside chats :
The wind is *always* blowing in THAT direction
x)
The dole que for most !
Interesting food for thought. You’re right about finding just something inconsequential, and then naturally building from there. I guess the difference between those that can’t and those that can is having a sense of where that spark can go in that moment.
Or indeed if is a spark worth nurturing.
For me, being a composer is like being an astronomer. I'm looking to the heavens for beauty in space and time. When I discover a melody or chord sequence that has NEVER been heard before, just for a moment it's my little secret. That makes me giddy with excitement. It's wonderful
Happy Composers Day to you all. I honestly only missed the "I Made Fire" shout from Castaway :) Being a composer means intellectual freedom to me. The moment when you write down your deepest inner emotions, and hear the music flow in the same moment all my negative thoughts will disappear.
"Just 3 notes that rub." One of my favorite albums started with "just 4 notes played on the guitar"... that album went on to sell millions of copies. That album is Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. It all started with David Gilmour playing that 4 note arpeggio at the very start. Everyting followed from that. It's stunning that so little can lead to such inspiration.
Yeah that PF interval touched me too and was one of those “gate opening” moments in my development.
0:33 - that's a sample right there!!
Love the fire analogy 🔥❤️ Happy Composers Day! Arson 4 lyfe!
Can I just say at this point ... never allow your 17 year old to invite friends over and set up the fire pit on the artificial lawn. It will melt. I know this.
That fire pit needs to be sampled ... with and without fire
I'd have to say this channel has changed the way I feel about music, technology and composing in general - several times over the years now. (Nice 'Enter The Dragon' sound off your burner)
(Alternatively) ... You cannot fail with The Devils Triad ... if used in the right circumstances ... with the right people.
But a true Composer is a cypher of unimaginable emotion ... who translates such Into the deep Human psyche.
F*** me I am a composer - so when I was told my "music" was rubbish ... it doesn't take away the fact that I am a composer ... PLEASE sample that DONG for my next piece. mmmm, if you use it that will stop me being a composer. Not so grand but - I'll be a plagiarist instead.
Say ye didn't say Aerosmith or Lincoln park,,etc
You really want the 100k 😂👍
If I could subscribe twice I would 👍
I've even broken my golden rule and clicked the bell!
I normally never let any app show notifications.
They just get too ...needy,
little attention whores in your pocket crying at you all day .."look at me, look at me!" 😂
0:32 beautiful gong sample 😁 Secret sample pack Easter egg
Also 4:06 another beauty
Wonderful and inspiring thoughts Christian.
102K subscribers and there's still 10 days of October left.
Trying to unterstand "the world" in sounds , melodies and rhythms. Am I a composer? Not sure. I think I'm a listener, trying to tell what I've heard.
Its funny i have never understood why i love music so much, i just cannot explain it in words its just a huge part of me and who i am, while I may not have buckets load of talent as a composer, i just know have this burning desire within me to create music and the more i learn the stronger the desire gets.
Happy composer day everyone :-)
if I could subscribe twice, Christian, I would do, but it isn't allowed, sorry
I tweeted about your subs target but, unfortunately, I am the most unfollowed person on twitter
Christian, apologies, I think I made an inappropriate comment last night - I went to delete it this morning but can’t find it, sorry
I don't know what it means to be a composer, yet one day I would like to be one.
There you go. You just got yourself another step closer to 100k. I dinged! and on composers' day, too.
For me it's essentially trying to speak without words and paint without paint, trying to somehow put a feeling into sound. It's very much about capturing a moment before it fades, I can't recreate something I wrote once it's gone but then again I'm maybe not theoretical enough to be a "true" composer.
I think the analogy works, as we all have matches and can find kindling. But you would have to add there is only one fire pit, and its in LA at Hans Zimmers place.
Doesn't the smoke stand for the part that keeps bothering you after you have written a composition within a certain time limit and that you wanted to invest more time into if time were granted to you? That you always have to stand some smoke after completing a composition? A feeling of: I could've done better...
Instructions unclear, my hurdy gurdy is now on fire
For me music is like a pie. Everyone should like pie and if they don't they're already dead.
Being a composer means, giving the music words to speak for itself.
Haha, I like how you consider music to be like fire.
I wish you a million new subscribers, since your channel has been one of the most educational channels on here. But could you tell me what's the added value of ringing the bell?
Cinematic Fire Pit?
Do another one of these please! Carole Paul Trombonist Composer Arranger
A composer is a mediator between art and technology. Creating magic where they meet…
When one perfects the devices of every genre or just the most popular and thru study of these obtains an understanding thru repetitious practice of these basics that define it's rhythm an accidental occurs albeit a theme emerges and viola'
I quite like Frank Zappa´s take on it:
Composing is "just doing interesting things to air" or words to that effect.
Or John Cage's "organising noises".
You've reminded me of David Toop's description of music as 'haunted weather' (which is also the title of one of his books.)
Alot like you said, a set of notes tends to haunt or stay in your head until you build more on and then record it.
Pain. It means pain :-)
Thank you for the great tutorial
Sample dat Fire pit....
🔥 awesome 👏👏👏👏👏☕
For me, composing is like lighting the fire and then throwing the whole matchbox in.
I’m gonna use that!
Wow....great video
The lopsided bench is hilarious 😂
Probably one of the best decisions I've had lately is subscribing to this channel, truly remarkable!
I would define being a composer as being able to give people an insite into my heart and soul.
By the way, when you was lighting the pyre and you the wood hit the rim of the metal, that 'gong' sounded amazing....
Being a composer is, for me, the search for an emotive way to accent and further explore what cannot quite be said with a visual, the voice, or with written words alone. It needs a sound, a vibration (I utterly agree about the honour and pleasure of working with other musicians though, naturally!)
Such the poet!!
To be a composer, to me, means tapping into a world of sounds, energy, textures, space, colours, moods, technology, cultures and life experiences, and unravelling it and expressing it as a piece of music
I think I quit…
Awesome
Being a composer in todays world:
- struggling to make money
- not having a family
- making music that someone else wants and not what you want
- thinking about subsribers count and content more than about creating fascinating music
- dying alone, but with tons of subscibers and B-rated peaces of music that no one will listen again
"Sad but trueee..." (c) James Hetfield
Ouch!
can I ask, is it only someone who works in the "classical" domain that can even begin to call themselves a "composer?"
Absolutely not Mariah Carey is one of the greatest composers of the late 20th century. The Ivor Novellos recognised this a couple of years ago and in her acceptance speech she spoke of how people presume she didn’t pen those insane American songbook hits.
@@TheCrowHillCo I didn't know that, thank you :-)
I was just trying to describe this to a good friend yesterday. Very timely Christian.
My milestone is 1000x less than yours (100 subs), but I've seen enough to know that you deserve to get your 100k just today. 500k tomorrow. 1 million in a week.
I sit back, cross my arms and tilt my head like a Dog with your videos Christian. Just realised that. Love it and this one particularly rings true.
Composing happened before the sparkle at 00:34, when a C# was produced by hitting the metalic pan.
I love the accidental 'Dutch Angle' that your garden slope creates Christian...is that also a metaphor for the serendipity that composition often is? Happy Composer's day everyone! :-)
For me, being a composer represents perfectly the search of my inner soul though the power of music.
It's a mind trick game, so to say! It can light you up or put you down in an instant! I only feel that this Enigma is keeping me intrigued throughout life's journey!
To me, the act of composition isn't at all to do with music necessarily.
I feel like it's the act of making certain decisions early on about a creative concept. This concept can range from absurd things like color matching for an outfit or three particular chords that fit together well. In both of these cases, there are high-end jobs like fashion designers and composers, but the initial "spark" as you denoted so very eloquently, is the same in both artistic endeavours. A photographer that ponders on a particular shot he wants to try on a subject, a filmmaker thinking about how a particular family member's life story might provide for a good screenplay. The act of composition, or to "be" a composer simply has different names in different artistic environments in my personal opinion. It's why I love working in this field, film composition, because we're (-or at least I'm-) instinctively searching for fellow artists that also know what developing an idea means, be it in abstract form like music or in a more literal sense in the form of making a movie. Open to hear any thoughts on this as well!
I loved the analogy of fire being the element which describes music. #composers warm the room of a cold shack in the woods. Fire joins people around it for dance around it. And fire can be so powerful that it can change the world forever around it (Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Shostakovich, Glass, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis), tearing down structures steeped in tradition. It can anger people, inspire people, teach people, change people. Your channel helped me through the pandemic and kept me in the seat, saying “I CAN do this” when it seemed like all had been lost. Your channel is the single most important of the over 100 that I am subscribed to. I know zero other composers and have never met in person a composer who has had work ever synced. So you’re technically my only friend. Thank you.
Hi Christian--
I only recently discovered your channel but what a revelation it's been for me. Mostly-- and this video is a great distillation of this-- it's been unbelievably encouraging to hear that there's another composer out there who works the way I do. That may sound terribly narcissistic (and maybe it is), but I've lived most of my musical life in complete isolation just composing and writing for myself. I've worked on several soundtracks over the last 15 years and two of them, if I'm honest, are unlikely to ever see the light of day although one got me an award and I have enough cred to have an IMDB profile. But I'm working on one now which is definitely coming out (deadlines and all) and it's a really exciting time for me. Discovering your channel with your incredibly helpful tips (I've almost completely adopted your screen idea for my studio monitor) and hearing your take on what I've always thought of as a kind of idiosyncratic way of working and maybe not "the way things are done" is encouraging, refreshing, and really provides a lot of encouragement for me.
Thanks so much!
Salient, sage advice as always Christian. You are a gifted teacher. 100,000 here we come!! Thanks!!
Anyone dislike the word ‘composer’? Sounds unnecessarily pompous to me, but I am quite often odd.
What could we have instead? How about “noise organiser”?
@@tweakingtuesday1743 sound wrangler
@@TheCrowHillCo 😆 taming the modular certainly feels like that sometimes!
@@tweakingtuesday1743 noise investigator?
Great analogy, Christian! It's very true. For me being a composer is about creating a new sonic universe for listeners to share, explore, connect with, and experience. It starts with a single thought and then exploring "what if".
I spy a Fairfield something at 7:12 :-)
Lovely, great work Christian!
I’m looking forward to the illustration of making a sample library with a musician, a wooden chest, and a chain. I hope for the sake of your family that you never make a video illustrating the job of a music critic...
To continue with the excellent analogy Christian..
I would argue that a composer has to be a "reverse firefighter" if you like...
Instead of extinguishing the spark a composer must nurture it to do their bidding. Maybe create some smoldering heat with which to smoke some herring, or a controlled inferno to clear old heather to make way for new shoots.
Generating sparks is not a problem for me as melodies and rhythm patterns flow freely as if angle grinding steel all day. The problem for me is then having enough trust or faith in my skills to turn that spark into at least, a cosy fire on which to warm my hands.
This is why I can not yet call myself a composer.😕
Inspiring. I like that spark analogy.
Let me try. For me, being a composer is like being an architect of an amusement park (while maybe all I can do is to design a tiny house). There is no limit to the imagination of sonic architecture. Yet, it will only be an imagination without the engineers and all the people who bring it to life. It's strange that sometimes I don't like being that architect. I like just to be the kid who enjoys the ride.
... and that three note semitone run really reminds me of something (Clint Mansell's Moon I think). Such a lovely progression.
I have always thought of it as a bit like being a magician doing a conjuring trick. The blank screen is a black hat that I sit at every morning, I then spend the next 6 hours trying pull a rabbit out of it.
Thank you, Christian - beautifully put!
Another interesting video, thank you for all your help, I have to say that fire pit has a nice gong like sound when you dropped a peace of wood have you tried sampling it?
Being a composer-is life. Creating for yourself or someone else or with someone else,it’s life. A musical/auditory translation of ideas and emotions. 🎶✨
let's keep going am learning alot here thank you
Your reaction when the smoke hit your face after you lit the match would be my response to my composition 😂 I'm only joking, of course. But sometimes I do come up with an idea that just doesn't work and that would be my response.
Concert halls are filled with people who need to cough as soon as a composition starts. Who knew they were justified!?
This was really well said. Nice words
Great video and Happy Composers Day to you! - also, you really need to sample your fire pit Christian
Best 40 quid I ever spent at Argos. Kept me warm during those cold lockdown months.
Another great video that seems to help me where I am right now as I don’t consider myself a composer yet. Not having anyone to bounce ideas off and basically no feedback, I have to go with my own thoughts and vision. Everything I do is another learning curve and hopefully I can keep doing it as it’s just a hobby that I love. Your channel and everything Spitfire does has pushed me into trying to get better , as a composer and a musician. Thank you 🤟🎶
Same here, love composing with so much to explore in all genres but have no-one to bounce ideas off and no constructive feedback. I live in the country in Cornwall so am a bit isolated hence the difficulty but still love music so much and there are such great sounds available online which constantly inspire me. Thinking of making up my own film footage to accompany my creations.
That’s not good. Every musician needs a musical environment in order to develop and learn. Fix your isolation problem, treat it as a priority.
@@nandoflorestan thanks Nando, yeah would be good to bounce ideas of people , get some feedback, I’ve joined Mixdown mixing academy, I done their course on Cubase and mixing course so hoping that helps! 🤟