{ Write More Music! }

So I guess since I’m the one that mentioned score study in my intro I’ve been told I’m the one who has to, I mean gets to, write the article on it.  I would like to point out that this decision was made by our illustrious editor in chief and, true to the way he always operates, there was no vote.  Dictatorship to the end!  Of course I kid.  I’m just glad he’s finally letting me write something, anything.

How do you learn to do something really well?  You practice (sorry to tell you) and you study the masters.  If you wanted to learn to paint you’d study Van Gogh, Vermeer, and Monet.  If you wanted to learn to debate philosophy you’d study Socrates, Kant, and Hobbes.  If you wanted to learn to rebuild motorcycles you’d study Daimler, Harley-Davidson , and Teutul – okay so maybe I’ve seen a little too much TLC in my lifetime… Music is no different.  If you want to learn to write great music you have to study the great minds of music. For composers, one of the best ways to do this, other than through reading autobiographies, biographies, and theoretical dissertations, is through score study.

I personally don’t think it’s especially important to study any one (or five) particular composer.  Sure, there are a few “don’t miss” composers out there, but there are hundreds of great composers and for beginning score study you might want to start with what is available to you or what you most like.  If you like Mozart, study Mozart.  If you like Weber study Weber.  You see where I’m going with this.  Now if you were going to write something for a specific instrument, instrument group, style, etc. it would make sense that you would study pieces written for those kinds of groups.  Writing a string quartet? Study string quartets. Hayden would be an excellent resource.  Writing solo works for tenor voice? Study solo works for tenor voice. Britten would have some great examples. If there is a specific sound that you want and you know a piece that uses that sound get the score and a recording and dissect how it was created.  The goal in score study is to understand how a particular composer created a specific piece or sound.  Once you’ve discovered the “how” you can decide whether to follow or ignore the construct you’ve unearthed.

If you don’t have any favorite composers (might I suggest you crawl out of the hole you’ve been living in) or don’t know where to start I’ve come up with a few of my favorites and any of them would be a good starting place.

Beethoven – Symphony No. 6 in F major, Symphony No. 9 in D minor
Saint-Saëns – Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Le Carnaval des Animaux
Copland – Appalachain Spring, Fanfare for the Common Man
Vaughn Williams – Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis

Other great pieces would be:
Debussy – Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune
Rimsky-Korsakov – Scheherazade
Ravel – La Valse
Stravinsky – Rite of Spring
Mozart – Symphony No. 40 in G minor

There are also quite a few places to peruse scores and recordings on the web.  For scores you can try Free-scores.com. This site can be kind of hit and miss on large works, but has a pretty decent variety of immediate downloads for small groups and solo instruments.  The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) is the best place I’ve found so far for free scores online.  If you’re looking to build your score library DoverPublications.com is a great source for purchasing hard copies of scores and they’re usually priced extremely reasonably.

Naxos.com is a great resource for recordings.  It does require a subscription, but if you’re lucky your university will have one, more than likely through the school of music or library.  Definitely see if it’s available to you or if it can be made available.  If it’s not something you have access to through your tuition dollars, you can subscribe yourself for under $20.00 a year.  If you are looking just to listen (which is also a good practice for diversifying your tastes and finding really great pieces to study) you can check out National Public Radio.  WGBH out of Boston streams classical music 24 hours, as do a lot of NPR stations.  While it’s not ideal for score study it’s free and you can often catch rare recordings.  Classical.com is another place you can go to check out free recordings.  They do require registration and while most downloads are not free, they do have a new, free album every week.  Finally, there are always the standbys, iTunes, Amazon.com, etc., where for less than a dollar you can preview and download a track.

I hope that gives you a starting place and some ideas about how to delve into score study.  Not only is it invaluable in learning to compose, but it’s fun!  I have sat through many hours of score study and listening, and while I may not have always liked the pieces, I always learned something and always enjoyed myself.  So grab a score and a recording and jump in!