All (Human) Music Is Repetition — Let’s Talk About That.
Because our brains are constantly seeking out patterns, all the music we create can be plotted somewhere along the grid of repetition.
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On Alban Berg’s Great Musical Palindrome
Hidden in plain sight in a second act interlude of Berg’s monumental Lulu, sits a full orchestra musical palindrome unlike anything in music history.
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3 Atonal Techniques for Adventurous Songwriters
Inspired by Arnold Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School, here are three ways to use atonal composition techniques in your pop music-making!
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4 Different Ways to Start a Musical Sentence
When you’re composing music, you kind of have to split yourself into a bunch of different personas. There’s “you, the artist” who contributes all the emotive content; “you, the craftsperson,” who gets anally retentive over just how you’re going to translate the emotive content in such a way that another human being can interpret it with […]
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An Introduction to the Prepared Piano and How to Notate It
+ Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. American composer John Cage was arguably the most prolific composer of prepared-piano music and is often credited as having invented the prepared piano, so to speak. While […]
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How Does Cory Arcangel’s Cat Video Mashup of Schoenberg’s Atonal Opus 11 Stack up Against the Original?
+ Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. The New York and Stavanger, Norway-based contemporary artist Cory Arcangel is widely known and respected for his use of hacked technology such as video games and software […]
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Sounds of Battle: Compositions That Defined the Wars of the Early 20th Century
In 1942, half-starved and weak from war and lack of supplies, members of Leningrad’s Philharmonic Orchestra gathered in the midst of the looming threat of bombardment to pull off one of the most extraordinary musical feats of all time. The city had already endured almost a year of brutal siege by the German Army — […]
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Technotonal
By Brendan O’Brien Techno is unpleasant. For the many it’s music reserved for eccentrics who have nothing better to do than hang out in poorly lit warehouses until 6am. Techno is basic music made by basic people who don’t know… stuff. That Family Guy clip is totally right, there isn’t even a key. What a bunch of […]
