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Share Your Music Share your .not or .mid files of your arrangements or compositions.

 
 
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Old 12-23-2004, 04:45 AM
Richard Clements (atonal)
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Default To begin with, I’d like to

To begin with, I’d like to congratulate Mark on the release of COMPOSER. It’s a testimonial to what professional integrity and musical vision can produce. As a long time user of MidiNotate, I can appreciate the added capabilities and enhancements that have gone into this very versatile
product.

Having a tool such as COMPOSER now enables me to view the musical creation/production process from a completely new perspective. One that is more centered around me, the individual user, than tied to, (dependent upon) the many independent and autonomous processes that support the commercial music creation process. I can now create music for me, and with complete dependence upon me. What a freedom !

In one of my previous lives, I had spent almost 30 years in the Hollywood studios as a professional composer-conductor-arranger in Television, Film and records. I had become intimately aware of the many ‘serial’ processes that both control and impede the music creation/production process. The studios are what they are. You either adapt or you move on
( ..or are moved on ). They have evolved using this serial process because it was the most efficient way to distribute the many localized processes that were required to get from point A to point Z in a very short amount of time. The drawback was in that very efficiency itself. The serial nature of the process of musical creation. .. i.e., Sketching, Composition, Orchestration, Copying, Changing of the film, Changing of the score, changing of the parts, more changing of the film, more changing of the score, re-orchestration, new parts, …..

And ALL of this under the ever present control ( and inflexible demands ) of ‘time constraints’ driven always by fixed budgets. I can remember many, many times I would be watching one of my weekly television series at home, and at the commercial break, see the trailer for the next weeks episode, and I hadn’t even finished writing for that episode yet ! Courier services would appear at my front door every 4 hours to pick up the most recently completed cues ( small sections of music that are played behind scenes ), copyists would be waiting for more parts to copy, contractors would be scrutinizing the scores for any additional required musicians for the recording session, or needed instrument doubles. As often as I did this over the years, I never completely divorced himself from the fact that I was a ‘link’ in a process. My friends and family saw me as a ‘composer’, while quite often my reality was labeled as ‘link C’ in the giant chain of ‘Music-Biz’ ..

I no longer work in the studios, but I still write music for myself. With Mark’s COMPOSER, I can finally move from that serial process into the center of a new circle, a circle that surrounds me with options for sketching, composing, arranging, orchestrating, part and score creation, and most importantly ‘changes along the way’ that are not dependent upon other links !

I have come to appreciate the very personal, private process of creating music. My time spent in music, composing, can now be a broader gesture of expression rather than a calculated commitment to specific objectives. All I need now do is invite myself to the process, and the once serial ‘string’ can now be tied into a ‘circle of choices and control’.

Let me touch again on the concept of ‘changes’. Making significant changes to deadline driven, commercial music is a luxury that few of us had in any great quantity. How often we would say, ‘if I had more time and didn’t need to get the sketch/score to the copyists, I would have changed that particular section of music’, or at the very least, ‘I wish I could have experimented a little more with this part of the score’. With COMPOSER, I have that freedom, with the added flexibility of still being able to complete the other necessary processes,… processes that are now under my control and surround me, .. rather than the knock on the door by the courier service from the studios wanting to pick up yet another ‘chunk’ of music cues to feed the impatient copyists. Granted, many of these constraints were (are) part of the commercial music business, and I no longer have to be controlled by them, nevertheless, the idea that I can now use COMPOSER as a circular piece of string, with me at the center, is a tremendous advantage for someone who wants to just enjoy creating music, and have it played with the minimal amount of development burdens.


There is a very subtle distinction between creating music and generating music. Often times, the later is the dominant driving force, primary motive when one is immersed in deadline driven commercial TV or Films. I view new tools such as COMPOSER as invaluable aids in enhancing the former choice. I don’t ever remember a time when I didn’t feel a need ( desire ) to go back and change something or experiment with different approaches. I honestly can’t remember too many times when I ‘actually did that’. With commercial television, one learns not so much to write what works well, but one survives by learning to not write what doesn’t work. … another
( unfortunately) important distinction.

And finally, there is the personal satisfaction and enjoyment that comes from sitting in front of a ‘sonic’ pallet , having all of these different ‘tools’ and ‘aids to coloring’ in front of you, and being in complete control. I need to remember that the journey is the reward, not always the destination.
And with COMPOSER, the next step is only ‘one’ step away.

Richard Clements


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