Creating a Composition Course
Patric Standford
Over the years a great many people have involved me in arguments
about whether or not any of the creative arts can be taught -
and this still goes on around our dining table at home! Of course
I have to agree, up to a point, that without being born with a
particular kind of creative instinct, nothing of any artistic
significance will ever materialise. Teaching the actual creative
process is very close to impossible. Being a creative artist is
a natural gift, just as a natural healer will take up medicine.
But I believe that the
craft associated with an art form
can be taught. With wise guidance, an artist can be provided
with many useful routes to a realisation of those often rather
illusive dreams. Composing is perhaps made more difficult to teach
than writing or the visual arts because of its essentially abstract
nature and the need to bridge the passage from dream to practicality.
There are not many performers who will respond effectively to
drawings of the composer’s ideas, although thirty years
ago such short-cuts were popular among some. The teaching of the
technique of composing need not impose on a student’s
imagination, but can be a guide through what can easily prove
to be a labyrinth of mistakes and misunderstandings, hindering
the establishment of a direct route from the imagination to the
listener through the essentially practical performer.
Last autumn I was asked by the Open College of the Arts to write
a composition course. This was a formidable request, although
I have been involved with teaching composers since I was first
recruited to the professorial staff of the Guildhall School of
Music in 1967 (and what a long time ago that seems now!). The
principal of the Guildhall was at that time the remarkable Allen
Percival, and he persuaded me that I should become the ‘understudy’
to Edmund Rubbra, a teacher in whose methods and wisdom I could
not have had greater respect. He taught me much about teaching
composition too. In particular, resisting any temptation to push
a student into composing in the teacher’s favoured style
or idiom. We taught the technique of composition and applied this
to anything from the creators of hymn tunes to post-Boulez ensemble
pieces.
The Open College of the Arts wanted courses that would appeal
to enthusiasts of any stylistic persuasion, starting at a modest
level and working at home with a good computer programme (the
course is written on
Sibelius)
with which tutors respond with recommended revisions that are
sent back on disc or by email. In all, a thoroughly up-to-date
‘distance learning’ process which is now available
and is already appealing to students in Europe and even Indonesia
as well as this country.
It is a course that has taken much thought and preparation, and
may still encounter some problems, but I am confident that it
will help to enlighten those who are curious about how music works
and how it can be made. It is also a product of my own firm belief
that although so much is now made so easy, there is still a need
for technical mastery and good craftsmanship in musical composition.
As time moves on we are losing respect for good craftsmanship
and many students are bored by the learning process. Computers
can provide quick effortless results - but these are usually deceptive.
I have responded to the request to create this unique composition
course because I want it known that music should not be composed
lightly, thrown together by the chance manipulation of a Midi
keyboard input or ‘cut and paste’ facilities. It must
be thought about laterally, gently moulded into shape, crafted
carefully with a sympathetic and perceptive instinct - and most
of this is what can be taught. The computer is used judiciously
to serve rather than to control the composer.
[
The Open College of the Arts also has courses
in Fine Art, Creative Writing, Photography Film and Digital Media
and Textile Design.
www.oca-uk.com.]
Patric Standford
