Talk:Composer
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[edit] Desperately needs work - also needs better definition
Please help to improve this article. It has been completely overlooked, despite the fact that hundreds of articles link to it.
I'm also trying to find a good definition of a composer. The original, "one who writes music", seems nebulous and semi-incorrect. One cannot "write music." Music is sound, not notation. "One who writes music notation" would be more accurate, but that would confuse a composer with a music copyist or something of the sort. Until a better definition is found, I've put in the definition currently on the page. I would really like some feedback on this! -Wolf m corcoran (talk) 01:37, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
I agree this is in bad condition. Looked for an article to help base some work on it but Songwriter and Guitarist are even worse! I suppose this could be merged into Musical composition given that they'll generally cover the same topic matter. Sillyfolkboy (talk) 17:34, 13 June 2008 (UTC) (God, just looked and that's awful too. What's going on here?)
- IMO this article - and the definition - are fine, though the page would certainly benefit from expansion, probably in the form of historical information. --Kleinzach 05:13, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
Isn't a composer simply a creator of music? Jongleur100 (talk) 23:46, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
- No, that would be ambiguous. An instrumentalist also 'creates' music in terms of a performance. --Kleinzach 05:09, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
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- Sorry to disagree. My dictionary defines 'create' as 'to bring into being or form out of nothing' and 'to bring into being by force of imagination.'
- If someone performs one of my compositions they are not creating it, I, the composer did.
- When I perform another composer's work I am not 'creating' it, I am interpreting it.
- My compositions exist even if they are never performed.
- The only performers who 'create' music are Jazz musicians who are improvising - but that makes them composers! Jongleur100 (talk) 08:03, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
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- As a professional musician, published composer, and long-standing performer I see nothing wrong in the present definition except that I think the wording ::'A composer is a person who composes (or writes) music,' is a bit clumsy and I would prefer it to read 'A composer is a person who creates music' - for reasons I have given above. If no-one has any violent objection I propose to change it to that. Jongleur100 (talk) 11:48, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
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- Hmm. No violent objection (!) however your very personal interpretation of the usage of the verb 'to create' is not one I'd share. IMO the language belongs to the people who use it, not the Ministry of Truth. Are you a native speaker? You seem to have given us your other qualifications. --Kleinzach 00:20, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
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- Yes, I am a native speaker, born and living in the UK. It's not my personal interpretation but that of the editors of a well respected dictionary.
- If, at the end of a performance of a Beethoven Sonata, I were to inform the audience that I had just 'created' the work I would expect a visit from the men in long white coats. What I would have done is create a performance of Beethoven's work, not the work itself. Are you a composer or performer? Jongleur100 (talk) 06:59, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
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- Oh dear. The only possible response I can have to an answer like that is to quote the great jazz composer and pianist Thelonious Monk : "Trying to explain music is like trying to dance architecture". Jongleur100 (talk) 17:53, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
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The world hasn't ended, yet the article seems to still need expansion. Perhaps it's not so desperate. Hyacinth (talk) 00:48, 31 July 2008 (UTC)
- No, but it would be good to have some kind of historical survey explaining how the conception of the job of the composers has developed over time, perhaps focusing on the Mozart to Wagner period and the struggle for artistic and financial independance. --Kleinzach 02:24, 31 July 2008 (UTC)
[edit] i need the answers
i need the answers to how much money does a composers earn, who employs a composer, are they genrally freelance? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.26.145.5 (talk) 01:12, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
- The scope of your question is vague. Do you mean composers of the 11th century? 14th? 21st? Obviously a great deal of difference. Same for you other questions. Throughout time, composers have operated both as freelancers and as payed employees, and often as both simultaneously. The fact that you need this information demonstrates how lacking this article is. Do you intend to edit it, or was this a general fact-finding question? --Wolf m corcoran (talk) 03:14, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Ñico Rojas
I'm not quite sure where to suggest new words for Wikipedia, so I'm just posting here. Pardon me if it's unacceptable. Someone please add.....
" José Antonio (Ñico) ROJAS BEOTO (1921)
Name: José Antonio (Ñico) Rojas Beoto Profession: Hydraulic engineer
Ñico Rojas was born on the 3 rd August 1921, in the city of Havana . By the age of 13 his parents had inculcated in him a love for classical and popular music and encouraged him to study the guitar. Ñico taught himself up to the age of 18 when he began his studies in the University of Havana to become a Civil Engineer.
Outside of those studies in 1942 he got to know and to become a founder member of the group of composers of the "Feeling" movement. He went on to compose the boleros: "My Yesterday", "Now I know that I love" and "You know", which were recorded by the singers Pepe Reyes, Orlando Vallejo and Miguelito Valdés. He counts himself fortunate to be able to claim the distinction of convincing that group of founding composers that they should be musicians and nothing else. Today from their number are the outstanding proponents of Cuban culture such as José Antonio Méndez, Ski Aida Diestro, Niño Rivera, Felipe Durzaides, Gilberto Aldanáz. Ñico also convinced the other 13 founders of the "Feeling" movement that they should listen to music of the great classical composers to advance their movement and to inform their compositions.
Having graduated as a Civil Engineer, he worked and lived in the city of Matanzas, combining the classic music of Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Debussy and Ravel, with the popular music of Antonio Arcaño, Arsenio Rodríguez, Miguel Matamoros and Nat King Cole, the rumbas of Matanzas, Saldiguera and Viiulilla and the rural music that he listened while he was constructing highways and aqueducts. Around 1950 a new style of composing instrumental music for guitar developed combining classical and popular music and based on the various Cuban rhythms. According to several Cuban musicologists Ñico Rojas is the originator of this instrumental style for guitar incorporating Cuban rhythms. His compositions are dedicated for the most part to his family, dear friends, and to people and places that he admires.
In Matanzas the four children of his marriage to Eva Montes were born. According to Ñico the loyalty and love of his wife and their children together with the friendship of the matanceros and the beauty of that city, inspired him to compose his 52 instrumental works, of which 24 were performed and recorded on two LPs by EGREM, in 1964 and 1977 respectively. The first of these was a great success at "Expo Montreal" in 1967.
He has composed 20 boleros and songs with texts and original music, which have been recorded by singers like Elena Burke, Argelia, Omara Portuondo, Ester Borja, Vilma Valle, Lino Borges, Carlos Díaz, Nancy Alvares, Pablo Milanes, Luis Garcia, Raúl de Mesa , Gilberto Aldanáz, Instrumental Quintet of Modern Music, Tito Bridges, Frank Emilio, the Rigual brothers trio, the Thesis trio, the Propuesta trio, and by José Antonio Méndez.
EGREM has published his first book of seven instrumental pieces for guitar and has plans to publish all of Ñico's compositions. He has recently composed a suite "Homage to 'Feeling'", consisting of 24 new instrumental pieces: Preludios, Cancion, Mambo, Cha Cha Chá, Batanga, Tumbao, Bolero, Guajira, etc all inspired by "Feeling". His instrumental piece "Tony and Jesusito" was performed at the Montreal Festival in 1997.
His works for guitar are used as study material in several of the Cuban conservatories.
Ñico Rojas has given numerous concerts and recitals in theaters and museums, and on television and radio.
In 1994 he won the annual UNEAC prize and also the BUTTERFLY prize for his musical achievement as a composer. He has also been awarded the THE NATIONAL CULTURAL AWARD and others other national awards such as the RAÚL GÓMEZ GARCÍA y ARMANDO MESTRE.
In January 1998 he was invited to the LINCOLN CENTER in New York where he gave two concerts as singer/guitarist, performing three of his boleros.
In August 1999 with the distinguished pianist Frank Emilio he recorded a CD of sixteen of his songs. "
quoted from [1] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.13.73.237 (talk) 19:33, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Better definition
How about a composer as someone who "organizes sound in time to create music"? This seems to clarify the difference between a composer and a performer, and avoids the word "write." Planninefromouterspace (talk) 03:34, 28 October 2008 (UTC)
- The article now reads: "A composer [...] is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of notation, for interpretation and performance." I think that pretty much covers the difference between a composer and a performer or improviser. Jafeluv (talk) 11:16, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
All can hear life as music to some extend at least. That is why we enjoy listening to music. If one notices the atmospheres of one's sensations, whether they are dark in colour or down-to-earth = low notes, or light in colour or hopeful = high notes, one's experience of life and its varying via time create a landscape of music out of one's experiencies. I guess that a composer ought to be defined as "a person in whom this ability to observe life as music is very well developed and whose compositions are beautiful, wise and profound enough to be considered as good quality music by others" or something to that direction. InsectIntelligence (talk) 11:19, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
