Composers Forum is a daily web log that allows invited contemporary composers to share their thoughts and ideas on any topic that interests them--from the ethereal, like how new music gets created, music history, theory, performance, other composers, alive or dead, to the mundane, like getting works played and recorded and the joys of teaching. If you're a professional composer and would like to participate, send us an e-mail.
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Although I didn't study with Nadia Boulanger, I understand that she taught the concept of "la grande ligne" or the grand line, where the melody creates a scaffolding from which the architecture of the music hangs. Being a hopeless melodicist myself, I have always worked this way. For me, the melody is what the music is "about." Momentum and cohesion work for me using this technique.
As a teacher, I have no interest in creating clones of myself. I'll refer to throwing out a line of foreground as an analogous technique, but even that sounds like the grand line. I'd like to hear what other composers do to set music in motion. I'm referring here to music that is notated, and not computer music or improvisation. (I should point out, I'm directing my students to this blog for your advice. I'm not having an aesthetic meltdown or searching for a new voice.)
Thanks for your help.
posted by Roger Bourland
5:58 PM
