In my last post on classical music I took a very quick look at some of the main eras of classical music (Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern) and suggested some works you might like to listen to.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of the classical period stuff; it’s a bit too regimented and predictable for me. Obviously there are a lot of people out there who love Mozart though, so give it a go before you write it off. Baroque has its perks; I like all the fiddly arpeggio-type stuff, and Vivaldi does a mean violin concerto. If you’re new to classical music as a whole, it’s probably best you don’t start off with the modern stuff. There’s a fairly select group of individuals who enjoy the sound of a square wave flying around the room. For me, romantic is the way forwards. Get stuck in to the big pieces by the Russians and the Germans, it’s probably the easiest and most rewarding place to start.
How the classics can help your songwriting
There’s loads of ways classical music can really improve your musicianship and song-writing. Before even discussing the harmonies and melodies two key areas all the great composers really mastered were structure and instrumentation. The structure of a piece is incredibly important. Two main forms which earlier classical pieces tended to take, and which you might consider for your song writing, are ternary and binary. Ternary has a structure A-B-A, so you start with something, do something else, then go back to the first something. Binary can be A-B-C, or A-B-A-C etc. The different sections in binary tended to modulate to a different key, say the relative major/minor or the dominant. If you’re feeling particularly brave you might want to consider something more complex, like sonata form, which is (very) basically:
1. Introduction – optional, often a bit slower, eases you in to the main bulk of music
2. Exposition – This is where the main theme/tune is heard
3. Development – Here the material from the exposition is developed and changed, often with changing key signatures, tempo and tonality
4. Recapitulation – This is an altered repeat of the exposition
Even the modern electro-acoustic music has very strict structures. In fact when the notes and the rhythm of a piece are hard to distinguish then structure is pretty much the only thing left holding all together! Try and listen to some Iannis Xenakis or Trevor Wishart (if you dare) and through all the weird noises and baffling rhythms you should still be able to identify where a section ends and another begins. What I’m trying to say is; structure is important, have a good think about it when writing your music.
When you’re listening to a bit of classical music really think about what instrument is doing what. Think about the timbres of different instruments and what they’re being applied to. When writing your music why stick to the standard guitars, piano, drums, bass etc? Strings can really bring a bit of music to life, and everyone loves a sneaky saxophone solo. The instruments being used in classical music are not restricted to that genre, think about what you’d do if you had a symphony orchestra at your disposal!
So, in conclusion, go and have a listen to some of the music I’ve recommended in the ‘essential listening’ sections. I’d suggest starting off with romantic and classical to ease yourself in, and have a good listen to what the composer’s trying to do and think about how you could apply their ideas to your own music. Also, don’t be averse to popping along to the odd concert!
If you have any questions or queries, feel free to comment and I’ll get back to you ASAP.
