2007-09-10 20:40:49 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Performing Arts
There have been composers who played reasonably well on almost all instruments. Paul Hindemith wrote serious sonatas for many instruments, and reputedly was able to PLAY all of them - and his main instrument was viola. Several of my undergrad teachers were Hindemith students at Yale, so this comes to me fairly directly.
Studying instrumentation teaches you the capabilities of each instrument. Studying orchestration teaches you how to compose and arrange for each of them, and their families. And anyone who majors in music education is required to study and learn to play passably EVERY band and orchestra instrument. For a composer, the most important instrument to master has always been the piano. Even now, with so much digital composition, having good piano skills will allow you to input your ideas so much faster than mouse, scanning, or qwerty.
There are always back-seat driver, and Monday-morning quarterbacks. But effective musical composition is usually of a higher level when the composer has the ability to expressively perform on an instruments of their choice - and has at least functional skills on several others.
2007-09-11 12:06:19 · answer #1 · answered by Mamianka 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The rule is...there are absolutely no rules. In ages past, classical composers would play one or more intstruments, but the composed music for instruments based on their knowledge of the sounds they wanted to hear, and not based necessarily on their own personal performances. Mozart played piano and wrote for piano, strings, voices, small ensembles and all orchestral instrument in the full orchestra. In this type of music, the composer expects the music to be performed exactly as he intended it, even down to the tempo and dynamics. In today's setting, a classical composer may still work the way mozart did, or more likely they would use some electronic medium like Finale for writing out their scores. They know the sound the want and not necessarily how to produce that sound on the instrument. Composers in other musical genre (rock, blues, jazz) tend to write only the melody and chord accompanyment, allowng the musician to choose how it's actually performed, the tempo, the specific rhythmic patterns, the key, and even the instrumentation. A song written orignnally for piano, will be performed by a band consisting only of guitars of vice versa. The performer gets credit for the performance the composer still gets credit for the song. If a performer comes up with a better version, he gets credit for thet performance. As an example, by 1975 the song "Yesterday" by Lennon and McCartney had been recorded more than 175 times by various artists around the world with a wide range of backgrounds and in different genres from rock, blues, swing, bossa nova, salsa, mambo, tango, gypsy, folk, classical (with full orchestra), muzak and even in different languages (French, German, Spanish). John Lennon and Paul McCartney was credited as the composers in each and every case. Good question!
2016-04-04 01:38:40 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not necessarily, but a composer should know the feasible range of all of the instruments it writes for. Also keep in mind what level of a player would be playing it versus the range you use, because even notes within the feasible range are still really hard for a beginner!
Just make sure you know the limits of the instruments. The last thing you want is for the instruments to go out of their range when playing.
2007-09-11 13:57:49 · answer #3 · answered by lachy4591 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. There are too many instruments. A composer should know at least one, however- preferably something that can play chords, like a piano or a guitar- and more if they can. Above all, however, a composer should know what many instruments sound like. This way, you'll know what instruments you want to play certain parts, even if you can't do it yourself.
2007-09-11 13:14:46 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think so.
But the composer must know about the technicalities of each intrument he/she uses, for ex. if a clarinet is in b flat, or if a voice (yes, human voice is also an "instrument", maybe the nicest of all) has the range (tessitura) to sing a given part.
All in all, the composer must not be able to play every instrument they use, but they have to compose music that is technically possible for the performers.
2007-09-10 21:04:55 · answer #5 · answered by jacquesh2001 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well he should know the limitations of each instrument, and the best way to find that out i think is to pick the thing up and play it! He doesnt need to be virtuoso with it, just enough to know how the inst. works.
2007-09-10 22:33:16 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
That would be difficult, to say the least. It would be useful, though, to know what sounds they are capable of, so that the most appropriate sounds can be used to express what the composer is trying to convey. Hope this helps
2007-09-10 20:53:01 · answer #7 · answered by SKCave 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No cause one it would take forever, two cause not every instrument is of interest to them, and three cause it would be the same for any other type of leader position except for a captain of a plane or ship cause that is something of importance for the safety of others for them to know what it is they are doing.
2007-09-10 20:54:05 · answer #8 · answered by lilone_onpnt02 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The universities in California require that you learn one wind and one string instrument, plus piano.
2007-09-11 15:34:59 · answer #9 · answered by mfg 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. Infact he dose not have to be able to play any instrument. He has an ear dont he?
2007-09-11 08:51:00 · answer #10 · answered by marco f 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋