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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Recently I’ve been beginning to think dynamics are a pretty big deal. While dynamics don’t have the formal possibilities of pitches, they are nonetheless one of the tools composers have to articulate development and contrast.
I’ve been noticing recently as well there’s a lot of music in which dynamic contrast does not factor. This was brought home to me by a (great) big band concert I went to Tuesday night; while the music was harmonically and rhythmically very sophisticated, it was pretty much all the same dynamic. This goes for loads of pop music as well. Minimalism, too. And, of course, Bach.
A lack of dynamic contrast signals for me a lack of musical contrast in general. After all, dynamic contrasts work most effectively in concert with textural, rhythmic, and formal changes. While I can’t quite bring myself to castigate composers for not writing enough dynamics – that seems a little arbitrary – I’m wondering: who’s got dynamics these days? Who do you turn to for great crescendi and diminuendi and sforzandi?
posted by David Salvage
2:16 PM
