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The Compositional Process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Edison Denisov
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Extract

In analyzing any composition, we retrace certain moments in the creative process. It is wholly unimportant whether the work arose through the conscious application of some compositional principle, or purely intuitively (in which case we presume that the author himself ‘didn't notice’ it). If we can observe an underlying principle, it has an objective reality, and we are therefore fully justified in investigating it and regarding it as part of the compositional process. The deeper we penetrate the musical fabric of a work, the more subtle and profound are the principles we uncover. By its nature, genuine analysis seems almost a reconstruction of the original process of composition. It is true that we are often unable to establish the order in which various principles arose in the composer's mind; but this, in the long run, is not really essential.

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Type
Research Article
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Tempo , Issue 105 , June 1973 , pp. 2 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

REFERENCES

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