“To send light into the darkenss of men’s hearts – such is the duty of the artist”
~ Robert Schumann

– A composer is someone who writes a music piece.
– Theatre
– TV
– Radio
– Film
– Computer games
– Other areas where music is needed

– A composer is to write an original composition for a specific project.
– The piece will then be performed by a musician or an ensemble.
– The composer makes sure that the piece of music he/she wrote suits the project.
– Example: If a composer is writing music (film score) for a movie, he/she must be aware of how the music effects the story line.
– The music must help move the story line without overpowering the scene.
– The composer may write music that is:
– Instrumental, has lyrics, etc.
– In a certain genre, i.e. classical, jazz, country or folk.

– Most composers have strong backgrounds in music theory, composition, orchestration and harmony.
– However, there are many composers who don't have formal training, such as:
– Edward Elgar
– Karl Lawrence King
– Amy Beach
– Dizzy Gillespie
– Heitor Villa-Lobos
– All of these composers were mostly self-taught.

– A good composer has
– Fresh ideas,
– Is creative
– Is versatile
– Not afraid to experiment
– Willing to collaborate
– Passionate about writing music
– Most composers know how to play several instruments, can carry a tune and have a good ear.

– The music composing process is a personal one.
– Every composer has their own unique process.
– Some get it from reading, others observing the world.
– Many have inspirations from life events.
– Inspiration may not also come immediately. Many composers are fond of writing down many ideas, improvising, or just playing freely until they hear something they like. Then they’ll write it down or play around with it.
– There is no right or wrong way to go about composing music.

Mozart was famed for being able to compose an entire piece of music in his head, and then write it down.
Beethoven, struggle with an idea for years, putting down fragments of sketches in notebooks, only to realize the full form of the music years later.

– a person who writes the words or music to songs
– Same as a composer, but uses words for most of his/her compositions
– First know songwriter was in 1821
– Examples of Songwriters:

The melodic and lyrical genius behind
Motown's greatest hits is the most influential and innovative R&B tunesmith of all time.
Robinson had his first hit in 1960 with the Miracles' "Shop Around“.
Robinson went onto pen the
Temptations' "My Girl" and "Get
Ready," Mary Wells' "My Guy," the
Marvelettes' "Don't Mess With Bill,"
Marvin Gaye's "Ain't That Peculiar" and many more.

He was rock & roll's first singersongwriter, and the music's first guitar hero, as well.
His songs were concise and mythic, celebrating uniquely American freedoms – fast cars in
"Maybellene," class mobility in "No
Money Down," the country itself in
"Back in the U.S.A." – or protesting their denial in coded race parables like "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" and "Promised Land," which he wrote while in jail inspired by the freedom marches, consulting an almanac for the route.

John Lennon's command of songwriting was both absolute and radically original: that was clear from his earliest collaborations with Paul
McCartney, which revolutionized not just music, but the world.
"I'm interested in something that means something for everyone," he told Rolling Stone in 1970, "not just for a few kids listening to wallpaper."
Songs:
Imagine
Hard Day’s Night
Strawberry Fields Forever

Sir Paul is pop's greatest melodist, with a bulging songbook that includes many of the mostperformed and best-loved tunes of the past half-century.
Songs:
Yesterday
Let It Be

Dylan's vision of American popular music was transformative.
No one set the bar higher, or had greater impact. "You want to write songs that are bigger than life," he wrote in his memoir, Chronicles.
"A song is like a dream, and you try to make it come true," Dylan wrote.
Songs
Blowin’ in the Wind
Like a Rolling Stone
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Forever Young

The overall structure or plan of a piece of music.
This describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections.

– ABA Form (Ternary Form)
– Consists of 3 sections : ABA
– Often the A sections are (nearly) identical
– The B section is contrasting to the A section
– Example: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

– Strophic Form (AAA song form)
– A type of song that has the same melody but different lyrics for each stanza (strophe)
– Melody: the principal part in music
– Stanza: a group of lines in a poem
– Strophe: a rhythmic system composed of two or more lines repeated as a unit
– Types of songs with this musical form:
– Art songs: vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment, and usually in the classical genre
– Ballads:
– Carols
– Hymns
– Folk songs
– Example: Old MacDonald

– Song Structure
– This is a very common pop song structure.
– It consists of a series of verses (usually two or three), interspersed with a refrain
(chorus), and often with an instrumental break towards the end of the song.
– A refrain (chorus) usually contrasts with a verse harmonically, melodically, lyrically and by the way that it is arranged.

– Verse: a set of lines that forms one part of a song, poem, or a book
– Refrain: a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a song or poem, especially at the end of each stanza; chorus.

Billie Jean – Michael Jackson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=Zi_XLOBDo_Y

– Lyrics: words that make up a song usually consisting of verses and choruses
– having the form and musical quality of a song, and especially the character of a songlike outpouring of the poet's own thoughts and feelings
– The writer of lyrics is a lyricist
– Musical form is the same as Song Form

– Theme and Variation
– The piece begins with a theme that is the main melody.
– That is followed by one or more variations of that melody.
– A variation is music that is similar to the theme but is also different enough that it does not repeat the melody exactly.
– Example: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOXdAa-G4bo
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxkDkf2U_Os

– Fugue: a piece of music in which tunes are repeated in complex patterns
– Example: Bach Fugue
– http://glassobelisk.net/clients/4mbs/music_app/track9.mp3

Music software is the internal programming of computers that supports musical production. Music software has been around for nearly 40 years.
It has been seen to have profound impacts on education involving music and creative expression.

– Technology has revolutionized the way we do many things, and music is no exception.
– Just as word processors allow text to be entered, edited and printed, so music notation software allows music notation to be entered, edited and printed.
– Notation software makes many things easier, including the making of corrections in the middle of a piece, printing certain parts of music, moving parts of music between different instruments, changing the key of a piece and many other tasks that continued to be time-consuming even in the world of mass printing facilities.
– The power of software even allows music to be played using sampled instruments which give a good impression of what it would sound like with real instruments.
– The top two composing software programs are:

Intuitive music notation software makes it easy to get great results without prior experience
Get your ideas into Sibelius First by scanning printed sheet music, transcribing audio, or playing MIDI instruments - and transfer music between applications via MusicXML interchange

Finale PrintMusic is professional music software for arrangers, composers, teachers, students, and other musicians.
Play MIDI keyboard and see music appear instantly; enter notes in step-time; import/export MIDI and Music XML files.
Share songs with free, downloadable
Finale Reader; save MP3 files for an iPod or burn to CD.
Free software synthesizer with 128 plus instrument sounds; Human Playback to give your music human nuances.

– http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatestsongwriters#ixzz3w8yOOxlf
– http://www.mfiles.co.uk/music-notation-history.htm
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_software
– https://www.amazon.com