Publication Details
Abstract
Music composition is both an art and an act. It is an art because it involves the combination of various structural elements of music such as rhythm, sound, harmony, melody, form and timbre (tone colour) etc which are logically organized to produce a vocal or instrumental piece. As an act, it involves the application of one’s intellect towards presumptions, presuppositions and profound projections of a preconceived musical cell in a highly structured logically creative network of ideas to evolve a gamut of musical work. That music composition is a complex task cannot be over emphasized; hence it calls for enormous power of concentration. Composers attest that in composition, the principal creative act is music – something that is considered new is produced by combining the musical elements that a given society recognizes as a system Generally, music composition, especially in Western music has certain intrinsic quality and laid down technical rules and theoretical dispensation that should be applied in order to arrive at a scintillating piece of music. This therefore challenges the researchers to write expositorily on the art of music composition using scientific and musicological methods of research, through experiential knowledge and training in musicianship. Mention were made of some compositional techniques, styles and skills in music composition such as through compose, strophic, rondo, fugue, musical notation and orchestration, etc as well as improvisation and extemporization which has to do with the spontaneous creation of new music in the course of performance.