“It should be noted here that proficiency in composition occasionally correlates with maladjustment to the culture and is often associated with religions activity.”

Music in Primitive Culture by Bruno Nettl, 1956, pg. 11

When I read that quote, I felt it resonate with me. Not that I’m all that “maladjusted” but that often times composers are a bit strange. Nettl goes on to say, “musical and religious specialization are often correlated, and are probably the two activities of primitive life in which specialization most commonly occurs.” I’d say that this quality is not only present in “primitive life.” I believe composers are usually tapping into the “religious” or spiritual essence of humanity. In particular, the music creators that dig deep into the human experience and hone their expression of it over decades can rattle us to our most primitive core.

When composers write music that resonates – literally resonates – with a listener both the composer and the listener are exploring pieces of the human puzzle. The composer did the work of crafting intuition and expression into sound and the listener unpacks that work allowing it to dust off and expose emotions, dreams, memories, internal rhythms, and bring them to the surface for a span of time. Clearly not every composition evokes the same reactions, but a successful composition is one that communicates across time and space with the listener in perhaps the most intimate way possible. Think about it, music is how mothers initially communicate with their children. Rhythm and melody are picked up in the womb. So, a person opening themselves up to be communicated with is the repository of great music.

In my experience, the intention of the composer matters. I think this is because it can sharpen the listener’s reaction to the music. Even if the listener learns about the intention after hearing the music, we can retroactively place different meaning and importance on the music and experience. “Hey, how was the concert last night?” “It was fine, there were some good parts, but they didn’t play my favorite piece.” A few days later. “That concert was incredible, I just learned that the last song they played was written for the singer’s mother who is battling cancer, and she was in the audience.”

I’m not implying every type of music or every piece of music has to have a grandiose manifesto in order to communicate something, but every piece does have an intention – even if that intention is to create music for music’s sake. I also think this is where music and the domain of spirituality and religion mix to become one in the same. Spiritual and religious music has very clear intentions that can’t really be separated out. For example, a healing song when not sung would not do much healing. The intention of a shaman or healer is in the music. It’s the belief that the healer holds in the power of a healing song that can’t be separated from the music. I imagine if you asked a healer if just saying the text (if there is a text) will have the same effect as singing, they’d reply with a resounding “no.” It’s like asking some cultures the difference between music and dance, they’d look at you in a puzzled way and wonder what you are talking about. See my article on Music and Movement: Music Has Lost: Movement, Participation, & the Universe – Global Music Theory

So far, the composer has been a communicator with human’s most powerful form of communication – sound. Music can make us weep, rage, and transcend. It can pull us into another world in the matter of a few seconds. Furthermore, we are constantly affected by sounds and can’t readily tune them out just by closing our ears. But I also see composers as explorers of sound. They investigate all the wonderful ways in which to manipulate sound, and what effects that may have on listeners – on communication. They explore the shape of sound over time through form and also the sounds in a single moment – the vertical and horizontal qualities of sound.

Composers explore the relationship between music and all the other activities that make up our lives, from shopping to worshipping to healing to love making music surrounds us. Not only are composers exploring the sonic qualities of music, but they also explore the inner realm of humanity. The moods, emotions, feelings, curiosities, and the physical can all be explored through sound. Composers explore within themselves to discover ways to express what they find via music. From a feeling of elation to the pits of despair and everything in between.

I feel composers are also explorers of their times and environments. They write music that speaks to the moment for a subset of people. Even though the styles and methods of producing music are continually changing, composers are also exploring how previous styles and techniques feel in the current time. For example, composers bring back the intricate counterpoint of the Baroque period or the lush harmonies of the Romantics and see if those techniques capture the mood and desires of contemporary listeners.

I used to question whether composing music is a worthwhile endeavor. What am I going to say better than all the music that has come before me? Well, I’ve learned that is the wrong question. I think writing music is about finding what is important for you to express because you are not the only one that needs to get that emotion or thought out. A composer is a bit like that kid who raises their hand and asks a question of the teacher that half the class also wanted to ask but didn’t. A simple way to see that music matters is to read the comments below your favorite music on YouTube and you will undoubtedly see how many people that piece of music has touched in a positive way.

I guess this writing is really about why composers writing new music matters. They are exploring human connections.

I just now learning to connect more with myself when I write and to simply allow myself to enjoy what I write rather than overthink and complicate it just for the sake of complication.

Here is one of my piano pieces. I hope it communicates something of value.