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“My” “Musical” “Language” ? Cover

“My” “Musical” “Language” ?

By: Rafał Augustyn  
Open Access
|Dec 2015

Abstract

The problem associated with the musical “language” of a particular composer can be understood either literally, i.e. with some possible analogies to natural language, or metaphorically, as a substitute of style, technique, or manner. I try to combine both usages. In fact, my approach to composing music is not so much - to develop a consistent language ready for use in multiple instances and thus to attain a recognisable personal style, but rather - to try to build a tool for use in one particular composition on many levels of musical “grammar”. Another basic problem is the proportion between impulse and design as defined in a well-known book by Andrzej Panufnik.

The examples discussed illustrate some core problems of the music creation process, such as the deliberately incomplete ‘‘monadic’’ form (Gamma from String Quartet No. 3); the evolution of style in the process of composition and its dependence on the medium (Rondeau for wind quintet); and purely intuitive composition (Con tenerezza from Cinque pezzi diversi).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/muso-2015-0002 | Journal eISSN: 2353-5733 | Journal ISSN: 1734-1663
Language: English
Page range: 3 - 17
Published on: Dec 31, 2015
Published by: Polish Composers\' Union
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year
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© 2015 Rafał Augustyn, published by Polish Composers\' Union
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.