Portfolio of musical composition: my approach to composing: the development, selection and application of techniques and systems in my music

I use a range of techniques to put together my musical ideas, techniques that are rooted in the incidental and intentional listening that identifies who I am, as a person as well as a composer. Reflecting on the intentional is relatively easy. Reflecting on the incidental requires objective analysis of one’s own music. Inevitably, such analysis identifies preoccupations and preferences, as well as technical weaknesses and obsessions, all of which may or may not be unhealthy. Like many composers, I develop various systems to help me generate the sketch material which eventually becomes the completed piece. These are important to me and can occupy the mind long after the job of selecting – and therefore discarding – and organising has been started. This is the work that in essence produces the version of the music to be heard – the only version that matters. While others may be interested, even intrigued, by the process of composing, it is difficult to accept the importance of the process to the listener. Once systems have served their purpose, they hold little relevance for me; they may be compromised, altered, even ignored to serve the needs of the music as it develops in its own right. The preoccupations that occupy me presently are: omophonic heterophon Non octave-repeating modes and derivative chord group Rhythmic devices in melodic constructio Temporal ambiguit The application of sets of rules or systems This commentary describes my methods and some of the intentional and incidental influences on my music, and reflects on my thoughts about how my music might be perceived by others. It also reflects on others’ and my thoughts on the relationship between composer and listener. This is something I have come to appreciate the greater significance of during the post-compositional analytical process – my starting point for the commentary – and something which seems increasingly more complex than I had once imagined.