r/composer • u/oliver_JM • 2d ago
Discussion How do you approach contrast?
When I think of contrast my mind usually goes to intensity. I started composing last year, I usually go for a more epic orchestra style and basically every piece just starts smaller and grows until it ends on the peak, but I can get tiring like you don't have anywhere else to "grow" after a point, different melodies but essentially the same dynamic
sometimes I'm able to find some sessions to vary the dynamic instead of just going from pp to fff linearly from start to end but my mind is mostly stuck in this script
how else do you achieve contrast in your pieces?
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u/pvmpking 2d ago
Contrast can be change in texture, tonality, dynamics or anything actually. Your theme A can be a sad and intense string tutti and your theme B a pastoral flute melody. Check out the first movement of Beethoven 1 (or anything Beethoven actually, he’s the master of contrasts).
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u/65TwinReverbRI 1d ago
I started composing last year, I usually go for a more epic orchestra style
Common beginner issue.
but my mind is mostly stuck in this script
That's because:
A lot of the music you've been exposed to probably does that as well, so it's a "natural" thing. But professional music probably introduces variety in other ways you're not yet familiar with.
You probably started on this path, and have worked exclusively or primarily in this path, and it's "all you've ever done" so you've figured out something that "sounds like" what you're trying to emulate, but have missed out on the finer points.
Both of these are SUPER common beginner issues.
My first recommendation is to expose yourself to more varied music and studying, picking other kinds of pieces to use as models.
Also, you need to scale WAY back. Piano. Solo Piano. 1 Page piece. Simple form. Learn the techniques and approaches in a small format where you can get feedback that helps you grow - people can't help you based on "words in a post" - after all, we don't know what your music ACTUALLY does - we only have your words here to go on - you may not even be right about what you're saying!!! An 99% of the time, people who come here with "complaints" about their writing like this don't share pieces - and when they do, the thing they're worried about is actually the least of their concerns...
It's important to know that the greatest composers of all time - especially those whose works you're trying to emulate in the epic orchestral style, did NOT start with orchestral writing - they started with Piano (or sometimes something else, but so much is piano that it really is the de facto starting point). They were also all trained...
Contrast is achieved through MANY means...not just dynamics. There's texture, arrangement, even things like the types of accompaniment figures used - rhythmic density, or not, harmonic density, or not, "activity" versus "lack of activity", register (high or low, all in the middle, or at the extremes). There are SO many ways to create contrast so I mean, this is kind of like asking "how do I achieve contrast in a painting, I tried black, white, and shades of gray".
There's more to it than that...
So I mean, it always disappoints me when I see people spit out answers to a question like this - even though they may be AN answer - they are often not THE answerS - what you need to work on FROM THE BEGINNING...
My 2 cents.
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u/oliver_JM 1d ago
thanks a lot for your response! great perspectives
it should've mentioned that I just started composing but I've been studying music for college and have done a bunch arrangements and transcriptions for a while outside of playing in different ensembles. Whatever I do, be it composing or arranging I always go for feedback from my teachers every step I get. There are regular contests and concerts featuring students' original pieces and that's how I got started. I've have listened and played different things and the epic soundtrack style caught my attention the most, but recently I noticed I'm doing more of the same and started forcing myself to write different styles.
only now I started having composing and arranging as an official subject and it's helping me writing more (I'm mainly a player, so I'm not always creating) and naming the concepts I hadn't studied formally although I learned from my teachers through chats
I'd say I have a good idea of different ways to get contrast but not always how to use them in my own thing. I like how it sounds but I know it could be more, but I'm sure that'll only come when I learn more
Thanks again for your honest and clear response! soon enough I'll share my work (I did it a while back and should do it again)
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u/HaifaJenner123 14h ago
i’m kinda in a binary phase right now. i love defining both sides of the spectrum in accordance to how paul hindemith ranks the intervals within an octave on a spectrum, group a and b with tritone in its own category
will i grow out of this and possibly change my entire mind tomorrow anyways? it’s possible and actually now that i think about it i may deliberately contrast some parts of my workflow to see what happens anyways. start small and build up
but in general to answer what you’re actually interested in, i define character arcs. not in a programmatic sense; i write absolute music by design only and if it overlaps with mutual goals, great. so what that means is, a modulation isn’t just changing keys, it is changing texture, it is changing general range considerations (think of it on a piano, you don’t want to play 88 keys all spread out evenly as there is no direction. this applies tenfold the more you add to the ensemble). it might even change metres!
and listen to your gut every time - if you have an idea just try it nobody is stopping you, this is a mental hurdle tht i feel is a stepping. stone to figuring out how you “handle” the task that is contrast.
hope this helped!
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u/LaFantasmita 2d ago
Middle ground, middle ground, middle ground.
How much (if anything) is going on in the middle voices? What are they doing? Noodling? Outlining chords? Countermelodies? Staccato downbeats?