Looking To Picking Music Composers Brains

Composition & Production
#1

Hi all been a while I hope and pray all well

I was wondering since I am still very much in learning stage and my mental illness do not help I do what I can

I am looking to get a great understanding of Your process from a lot different music composers and styles

What is Your process when You want to covey a certain emotion to Your listeners

Do You start with the chosen emotion first and then build everything around it ?

Do You chose what keys or intervals or scales modes ,etc to convey that that certain emotion?

Let say the two different emotion to work with Separately on their own is ( deeply longing for) and (frustrated)

How would You Music Composers out thier approach this and process of developing thier music idea in best way to convey though two emotions stated above ?

Thanks In Advance

God Bless

1 Like
#2

Hey Brian. That’s a good question. Normally, I would say that there is no specific answer to this, as it is up to you as an artist and composer how you want to convey a certain feeling or emotion to your listeners. However, there are of course certain techniques and theory that you can look to as a starting point.

For my process, I’d usually have an idea of the story/image/emotion I want to convey first, then decide which type of harmonies/melodies/instrumentation/rhythm/tempo would work, in my artistic sense, for those ideas. If you’re asking about “frustrated” I would most likely choose dissonant harmonies or melodic intervals, like minor seconds or ninths, major sevenths, even note clusters. I would probably also use a lot of contrasting dynamics. Tempo-wise, it would depend on what type of frustration I was feeling.

For “deeply longing for” I would probably go with a minor key and use a solo instrument with a slower tempo melody with a light harmonic accompaniment.

My examples of both of these emotions are from two of the great masters. To me, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, third movement is the sound of “frustration”

Second, I’d choose Camille Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccio as the sound of “deep longing”

Again, it’s up to you as the artist to convey as you hear it, but I hope this gives you some ideas!

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#3

How would You go about using a story arc when composing a musically idea ?

Like if I
wanted to create a simple musically journey

Starting would be a character would be walking along a smooth dirt road feeling very calm and relax
and then as the character goes up the hill abit with no cares in the world
Suddenly the character finds himself falling down into a deep hole
where blackness ,doubt and fear grip his heart as he crawls around in the dark
as he seems to grasp for his last bit of air
a faint light appears way up above
and down tumbles a rope

Would this be the right way of thinking of a story arc ?