How the hell did they do it?

[pizzamon]

Classical musicians, like all musicians, know how to read and write music very well. The more you know, the more you grow. There are some very talented modern classical musicians (especially in mexico) that are doing the same thing more Renaissance musicians did, pour their understanding of the world into a musical composition. They are fascinated by the act of sound, and their innate and personal experiences. I've said it once and I'll say it again, music is a language first. All languages (alphabetical, mathematical) express something, the musical language expresses the human soul; as far as I'm concerned. The better you understand theory, and the better you understand the language, the easier this becomes.

edit: sorry for the terrible spelling, it's been corrected. Guess I need to drink my coffee before replying!

[tone-def]

My friend worked on the score for the lord of the rings films, was in actual fact written by lots of people not one person, and they are all amazing musicians. I agree that jazz musicians and instrumentalists all have lots of skill. I just cannot fathom how anyone could write a symphony with pen paper piano and a few instrumentalists. Thought in the head, written onto paper, then played by students. I just feel maybe music is made too quickly these days. There are only a handful of musicians per generation that will stand the test of time and still be listend too 150-200 years in the future. Who would you think they are from our generation? Aphex maybe? Not sure. Just have a lot of respect for the poeple writing music all those years ago.

Aphex ?

I think you're really overestimating his fame. He's maybe known by 0.001% of the global population...

I think people like Madonna or Michael Jackson will be remembered for some decades, but I don't think they will last for centuries. society changes, everything used to be slower in terms of evolution of sound. 200 years ago there was room for artists with a vision to change the musical landscape for the coming 50 years or so, and especially the classical musicians profiled themselves as the only relevant one, that's why we only know the elite classical musicians. There will have been many good gypsy musicians and troubadours with maybe even more talent, but they were not remembered because they were not part of the high society. That's what probably will happen with all music from this generation. It will be forgotten, because the modern scene doesn't want to remember.

modern music will only be remember if it has been pressed to vinyl. it's an object which can be handed down generation to generation. Music that was released as downloads or CD's will harder to hand down as hard drives and CD's don't last forever. Thats how classical music lasted so long, it was written on paper and looked after for many generations.

[Fonque]

Some Guys like Mr. Bach were more like Math Professors than Musicians. In fact most of the music manifestated in their heads because obviously they didn't have a whole orchestra available all the time.

Beethoven e.g. was deaf and was still writing symphonies...

[nathan_fr]

beethoven didnt have an orchestar with him when composing

he had at least a bunch of students with whom he could play along.

But jazzmen and rockers are often playing such short pieces in comparison

i do not agree. of course there is a lot of improvisation but it take huge skills to do so.
now listen OST like lord of the ring or , star wars , aren't they great compositions? did the man that wrote star wars score had a computer to help him back in the days?

At least, he had an arp 2600 ...

[zkreso]

I think it's difficult to say what classical composers would be up to if they were alive today. They were masters of melody and harmony, but back in the day that was everything you had to work with. There were no opportunities to work with timbre like today. All pianos sounded the same and they were limited to writing what was technically possible to perform. So they had very rigid boundaries, but within those boundaries they were masters and really explored all possibilities. Today, technology has erased those boundaries, and musicians have many more elements to work with. But the backside of this freedom is that it is more difficult to master many different things than it is to master one thing. Maybe Beethoven wouldn't be so good with symphonies if he spent half his time tweaking ASDR envelopes.

[Castronova]

modern music will only be remember if it has been pressed to vinyl.

I definitely disagree. Vinyl is definitely the most delicate medium. Granted, the people on this forum and other collectors probably take great care of their stuff, but the average person doesn't. Look at what poor condition vinyl is usually in when you get something that was originally released in the 80's or earlier... and that was just 20-30 years ago. It's subject to scratches, melting, or cracking over time because it's been stacked or just because of the poor quality of the actual material. Plus there are probably tons of priceless records wasting away in thrift stores or in storage because someone's son just donated everything after a collector died.


Besides that, you guys are talking like composers don't exist anymore. They just aren't nearly as popular or as visible as they were before music was recorded, when the main way to consume music was to hire an orchestra or buy sheet music.

I know a couple people working in the film industry that still compose everything by hand... not to mention the orchestrators that take sketches of music for film (sometimes "composed" by people who don't even know to read music) and turn an idea or one line of music into something written out for 35 people to play in an orchestra. I have a good friend that went to school for music composition and is now a professor -- he does it by hand nearly every night after he finishes teaching classes or grading other students' handwritten compositions.

It's just a really cumbersome process if you're writing popular/rock-based/electronic/etc music, because all these styles are incredibly simple and repetitive when you write the notes out, and there usually aren't that many instruments.

[trak660]

I think that whatever gets used in TV commercials will be remembered.

[Robot Criminal]

and btw Bethoven wasn't deaf for his whole life...