Musical composition can refer to an Originality piece or work of music,
Although a musical composition often uses musical notation and has a single author, this is not always the case. A work of music can have multiple composers, which often occurs in popular music when all members of a band collaborate to write a song or in musical theatre, when one person writes the melodies, a second person writes the lyrics and a third person orchestrates the songs.
A piece of music can also be composed with words, images or, since the 20th century, with that explain or notate how the singer or musician should create musical sounds. Examples range from 20th century avant-garde music that uses graphic notation, to text compositions such as Karlheinz Stockhausen's Aus den sieben Tagen, to computer programs that select sounds for musical pieces. Music that makes heavy use of randomness and chance is called aleatoric music and is associated with contemporary composers active in the 20th century, such as John Cage, Morton Feldman and Witold Lutosławski. A more commonly known example of chance-based, or indeterminate, music is the sound of wind chimes jingling in a breeze. The study of composition has traditionally been dominated by examination of methods and practice of Western classical music, but the definition of composition is broad enough to include the creation of popular music and traditional music songs and instrumental pieces, and to include spontaneously improvised works like those of free jazz performers and African percussionists such as Ewe drumming.
In the 2000s, composition is considered to consist of the manipulation of each aspect of music (harmony, melody, form, rhythm and timbre), according to Jean-Benjamin de :
Terminology
Since the invention of
sound recording, a classical piece or popular song may exist as a recording. If music is composed before being performed, music can be performed from memory (the norm for instrumental soloists in
concerto performances and singers in
opera shows and
art song recitals), by reading written musical notation (the norm in large ensembles, such as orchestras,
and
), or through a combination of both methods. For example, the principal cello player in an orchestra may read most of the
accompaniment parts in a symphony, where she is playing tutti parts, but then memorize an exposed solo, in order to be able to watch the
Conducting. Compositions comprise a huge variety of musical elements, which vary widely from between genres and cultures. Popular music genres after about 1960 make extensive use of electric and electronic instruments, such as
electric guitar and
electric bass. Electric and electronic instruments are used in contemporary classical music compositions and concerts, albeit to a lesser degree than in popular music. Music from the
Baroque music era (1600–1750), for example, used only acoustic and mechanical instruments such as strings, brass, woodwinds, timpani and keyboard instruments such as
harpsichord and
pipe organ. A 2000s-era pop band may use an
electric guitar played with
effects unit through a
guitar amplifier, a digital synthesizer keyboard and
electronic drums.
Piece
Piece is a "general, non-technical term that applied mainly to instrumental compositions from the 17th century onwards....other than when they are taken individually 'piece' and its equivalents are rarely used of movements in sonatas or symphonies....composers have used all these terms in frequently in compound forms e.g.....In vocal music...the term is most frequently used for operatic ensembles..."
[Tilmouth, Michael. 1980. "Piece". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, first edition, 20 vols., edited by Stanley Sadie, Vol. 14: 735. London: Macmillan Publishers; New York: Grove's Dictionaries. .]
As a musical form
Composition techniques draw parallels from visual art's formal elements. Sometimes, the entire form of a piece is
through-composed, meaning that each part is different, with no repetition of sections; other forms include
strophic,
rondo, verse-chorus, and others. Some pieces are composed around a set scale, where the compositional technique might be considered the usage of a particular scale. Others are composed during performance (see
improvisation), where a variety of techniques are also sometimes used. Some are used from particular songs which are familiar.
The scale for the notes used, including the mode and tonic note, is important in tonality musical composition. Similarly, music of the Middle East employs compositions that are rigidly based on a specific mode (Arabic maqam) often within Taqsim, as does Indian classical music in both the Hindustani and the Carnatic music system.
Methods
Computer methods
As technology has developed in the 20th and 21st century, new methods of music composition have come about.
EEG headsets have also been used to create music by interpreting the brainwaves of musicians.
This method has been used for Project Mindtunes,
which involved collaborating disabled musicians with DJ Fresh, and also by artists Lisa Park and Masaki Batoh.
Compositional instrumentation
The task of adapting a composition for different
is called
arrangement or
orchestration, may be undertaken by the composer or separately by an arranger based on the composer's core composition. Based on such factors, composers, orchestrators, and arrangers must decide upon the instrumentation of the original work. In the 2020s, the contemporary composer can virtually write for almost any combination of instruments, ranging from a
string section, wind and brass sections used in a standard
to electronic instruments such as
. Some common group settings include music for full
orchestra (consisting of strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion),
concert band (which consists of larger sections and greater diversity of woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments than are usually found in the orchestra), or a chamber group (a small number of instruments, but at least two). The composer may also choose to write for only one instrument, in which case this is called a solo. Solos may be unaccompanied, as with works for solo piano or solo cello, or solos may be accompanied by another instrument or by an ensemble.
Composers are not limited to writing only for instruments, they may also decide to write for human voice (including choral works, some symphonies, , and Musical theatre). Composers can also write for percussion instruments or electronic instruments. Alternatively, as is the case with musique concrète, the composer can work with many sounds often not associated with the creation of music, such as , sirens, and so forth.
Arranging
Arranging is composition which employs prior material so as to comment upon it such as in mash-ups and various contemporary classical works.
[BaileyShea, Matt (2007), " Filleted Mignon: A New Recipe for Analysis and Recomposition", Music Theory Online Volume 13, Number 4, December 2007.]
Interpretation
Even when music is notated relatively precisely, as in Western classical music from the 1750s onwards, there are many decisions that a performer or conductor has to make, because notation does not specify all of the elements of musical performance. The process of deciding how to perform music that has been previously composed and notated is termed "interpretation". Different performers' or conductor's interpretations of the same work of music can vary widely, in terms of the tempos that are chosen and the playing or singing style or
musical phrasing of the melodies. Composers and songwriters who present their own music in a concert are interpreting their songs, just as much as those who perform the music of others. The standard body of choices and techniques present at a given time and a given place is referred to as performance practice, whereas interpretation is generally used to mean the individual choices of a performer.
Copyright and legal status
Copyright is a government-granted
monopoly which, for a limited time, gives a composition's owner—such as a composer or a composer's employer, in the case of work for hire—a set of exclusive rights to the composition, such as the exclusive right to publish
sheet music describing the composition and how it should be performed. Copyright requires anyone else wanting to use the composition in the same ways to obtain a license (permission) from the owner. In some jurisdictions, the composer can assign copyright, in part, to another party. Often, composers who are not doing business as publishing companies themselves will temporarily assign their copyright interests to formal publishing companies, granting those companies a license to control both the publication and the further licensing of the composer's work.
Contract law, not copyright law, governs these composer–publisher contracts, which ordinarily involve an agreement on how profits from the publisher's activities related to the work will be shared with the composer in the form of
royalties.
The scope of copyright in general is defined by various international treaties and their implementations, which take the form of national statutory law, and in common law jurisdictions, precedent. These agreements and corresponding body of law distinguish between the rights applicable to sound recordings and the rights applicable to compositions. For example, Beethoven's 9th Symphony is in the public domain, but in most of the world, recordings of particular performances of that composition usually are not. For copyright purposes, song lyrics and other performed words are considered part of the composition, even though they may have different authors and copyright owners than the non-lyrical elements. Many jurisdictions allow for compulsory licensing of certain uses of compositions. For example, copyright law may allow a record company to pay a modest fee to a copyright collective to which the composer or publisher belongs, in exchange for the right to make and distribute CDs containing a cover band's performance of the composer or publisher's compositions. The license is "compulsory" because the copyright owner cannot refuse or set terms for the license. Copyright collectives also typically manage the licensing of public performances of compositions, whether by live musicians or by transmitting sound recordings over radio or the Internet.
In the U.S.
Even though the first US copyright laws did not include musical compositions, they were added as part of the Copyright Act of 1831. According to a circular issued by the United States Copyright Office on Copyright Registration of Musical Compositions and Sound Recordings, a musical composition is defined as "A musical composition consists of music, including any accompanying words, and is normally registered as a work of the performing arts. The author of a musical composition is generally the composer, and the lyricists if any. A musical composition may be in the form of a notated copy (for example sheet music) or in the form of a phonorecord (for example cassette tape, LP, or CD). Sending a musical composition in the form of a phonorecord does not necessarily mean that there is a claim to copyright in the sound recording."
In the UK
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 defines a musical work to mean "a work consisting of music, exclusive of any words or action intended to be sung, spoken or performed with the music."
[ Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1988.]
In India
In India The Copy Right Act, 1957 prevailed for original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work until the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1984 was introduced. Under the amended act, a new definition has been provided for musical work which states "musical works means a work consisting of music and included any graphical notation of such work but does not included any words or any action intended to be sung, spoken or performed with the music."
There are several platforms offering music composition services online.[Carry A Tune Studio. "Music Composition Services – Professional Custom Music Creation Online". carryatune.in [3]]
See also
-
BCM Classification
-
Developing variation
-
Dickinson classification
-
MIDI composition
-
Music manuscript
-
Music publisher (popular music)
-
Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM)
Sources
Further reading
-
. 1998. "Siamo tutti compositori. Alcune riflessioni sulla distribuzione sociale del processo compositivo". Schweizer Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft, Neue Folge 18:259–330.
-
Sorce Keller, Marcello. 2019 "Composition", Janet Sturman (ed.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Music and Culture. Los Angeles: SAGE Reference, 2019, Vol. II, 618–623.
External links
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Internet Concert Project: Album for the Young Student New Music – an online performance and documentary feature from Bloomingdale School of Music (January 2010)
