Learning to Compose; it started with a NamePiece

In May 2014 I was invited to a baby shower for a fellow harpist, Lacey Lee. Just for the heck of it I thought I would try to compose a piece for her baby, Michael Thomas Jones. To compose this piece, I used a method that I had read about on line. Mark Harmer, a harpist in England, wrote about for using the letters in baby's names to create original music them.

Before I could compose I had to figure out the notes for the baby's name. I used the musical notes of a scale to head seven columns, A-G. Then I wrote the alphabet under these columns, (seven letters in a row), until finished. This chart became the basis for assigning notes to the baby's name.

As the baby's name started with "M", I found the M on the chart, looked to the top of the M column and wrote down the "F" which headed the M column. The letter "M", was translated to the musical note "F". Then, I charted the remaining letters of the baby's name to get the "name-notes". It was a formula for starting to compose, and provided some "givens"; some notes to work with, that would be the conceptual framework of the piece.

My first composition:

A NamePiece for

Michael Thomas Jones. May 2014

During 2014-2015, I took Deborah Henson-Conant's webinar, Hipharp Toolkit, and learned about arranging a fakebook melody. When I took her webinar for Baroque Flamenco, I saw these arranging tools applied to a brilliant composition. I composed four more NamePieces, using the techniques for arranging from HipHarp Toolkit.

By late 2015, I knew I enjoyed the experience of composing. It was stimulating, and there was an intriguing element of the unknown; what was going to evolve? This creative process spoke to me, and summoned up a potent sense of vitality. But I knew very little about the art, theory, or the substance of composition.

Deborah observed regularly that it seemed I was intent on composing, rather than arranging on the fly. That was true, but I doubted that that inclination made me a composer.

So for the year 2016, I decided to explore what it would mean to compose for the harp. And I come full circle to the beginning of this blog.