Composing Music With Constraints

There is a famous quote by Stravinsky: “my freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint, diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self of the chains that shackle the spirit.” This is from Poetics in Music in the Form of Six Lessons. It’s a great quote, but I really like what he says before this famous quote:

I have no use for a theoretic freedom. Let me have something finite, definite — matter that can lend itself to my operation only insofar as it is commensurate with my possibilities. And such matter presents itself to me together with limitations. I must in turn impose mine upon it. So here we are, whether we like it or not, in the realm of necessity. And yet which of us has ever heard talk of art as other than a realm of freedom? This sort of heresy is uniformly widespread because it is imagined that art is outside the bounds of ordinary activity. Well, in art as in everything else, one can build only upon a resisting foundation: whatever constantly gives way to pressure, constantly renders movement impossible. My freedom thus consists in my moving about within the narrow frame that I have assigned myself for each one of my undertakings.

I shall go even further: my freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint, diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self of the chains that shackle the spirit.

― Igor Stravinsky, Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons

Stravinsky’s creative process was grounded in the constraints he placed on himself . Not just in relation to style or form – but in relation to everything that goes into a musical composition. Form, style, intervals, rhythm, and key or pitch class. These constraints are Stravinsky’s building blocks, they help a composer define a particular work and all composers self-impose some types of boundaries on themselves – weather they realize it or not – those boundaries are always there.

Teaching Composition with Boundaries

Students need well defined boundaries of pitch class, rhythm, and form to help them get started, and if I have a student that still has trouble I simple add more constraints to help them limit their choices. Once students get beyond the choices of “where to start” their musical creativity will take off as the get into the “flow” of composing. What constraints can we add?

• Limit the notes to a specific key – or for students with no theoretical knowledge – limit the notes to a specific pitch class. For example: ask instrumentalists to compose using only the first three to five notes they learn as beginners.
• When composing away from an instrument assign a tonic or “home-tone” — insist that students begin and end on the tonic, but explore ending on different scale degrees – compare and contrast how ending on a different note changes the direction of a melody.
• Only allow students to use specific types of intervals. Start with using only steps, then add skips before introducing leaps. Also instruct students on using a balance of intervals – mostly steps, a few skips and only one or two leaps in any single melody.
• Limit the rhythm – only allow students to use simple rhythms or have them use the same rhythmic motive throughout the melody.
• Teach melody first –  then talk about and extend the form, then add harmony through counter melodies before working with chords.
• When composing with loops or midi instruments on Soundtrap, I will give them a specific set of loops to choose from or give them specific search criteria that they must use to choose their loops or patches. Use a specific keyword search and then further constrict choices by filtering for only major or minor loops.
• When teaching harmony remember to keep it simple. Start with parallel melodies in thirds or “skips” then keep it simple and only refer to intervals as being dissonant or consonant. Teach students to resolve dissonant intervals into consonant ones. Think of a really watered-down version of the dreaded counterpoint classes from college; students will be able to compose contrapuntal lines that sound great with very simple rules!
• If a student doesn’t know where to start give them MORE limitations. Have them compose ONLY the rhythm of their melody – from beginning to end – all on the same pitch. Then ask them to alter the notes to create the melody, but only allow them to use steps! Then maybe have them alter the melody – transform it to use skips and a leap?
• When dealing with form – stick to a strict number of bars for each phrase and a strict form. A-B or A-B-A first with exact copies of similar sections. Once the form is created then allow students to change sections for variations.
• Theme and Variations is also a great way to teach rhythm, motives, and sequence. Start with a simple melody – copy-past-transform into different variations! Limit the variations or assign specific ways to change the melodies for each variation.
• Remember “garbage in – garbage out!” and be sure to expose your students to different styles and types of musical compositions. Teach kids to analyze and break down compositions and look for ideas to “steal”!

More Tips & Resources for Teaching Composition

• Composition for Kids: Time Saving Ways to Encourage Composition – a lecture series by Wendy Stevens from ComposeCreate.com
• 16 Tips on Composing Music – by Bob Reynolds – some great tips. More for experienced composers and composition students, but applicable to younger students.

Photo Credit: Str@vinsky Flickr via Compfight cc