 |
| A Composer Composing |
Composers vs. Composition. There's a connotation there:
composers are artists, they are musicians, they are creative.
Composition, on the other hand, is that class we take; it's studious; it's tedious; it involves a desk, a lamp, some white noise, a can of Diet Pepsi or a mug of lukewarm coffee. How can we help our students to think of themselves as composers?
 |
| My sons (are not droids) |
The medium. That's one place to start. An artist has tools at his disposal. Composer John Williams of
Star Wars and
Indiana Jones fame had violins and trumpets at his disposal. Digital composition offers
our artists tools. Do they want sound? An image? A video that works as a metaphor? A hyperlink to another
composer whose work has inspired their own? There's a creative freedom with a digital medium that can foster our artists' creativity. On paper, a students' creativity--or lack of it--can be exposed, but that isn't so wrong. We need to see those flaws, too. But what if the images, links, videos and hypertext aren't crutches for students, but instead opportunities?
