When I create a piece, I want it to be unique.
There are many challenges to writing original musical compositions. The first one is creating a great melody or melodies for each piece. When I am satisfied with a melody or melodies for one piece, the next thing I want is to make certain that I am not duplicating something that I have written before. When composing music, it is not uncommon to repeat similar patterns in melodies, so I work to be conscious of that potential.
Sharon Ruchman, Classical Contemporary Composer
As a classical contemporary composer and musician, there are many musical elements that I try to incorporate into my compositions, one being a strong melody.
A melody can appear in different forms in a piece by changing its rhythm, its key, or tempo. I also enjoy using a technique of imitation or “echoing” of a melody from one instrument to another. My ambition is always to engage the listener with a strong and distinctive melody that can be recognized in the piece even in its different forms. The ultimate hope is that he or she will to retain that melody in his or her mind, and that my music will lives on beyond it first being heard.
One of the first things I contemplate when beginning a new music composition is what key I should use. Depending on the type of piece I wish to write, I can choose either a major key, which offers a brighter sound and more cheerful feeling, or a minor key, which is often equated with a sad or somber feeling. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, for example, is in a minor key, and “Ode to Joy” from his Ninth Symphony, is in a major key.
As I was playing my compositions on the piano during a recent performance, I thought not only about communicating the mood and feeling of the music I compose and perform, but I imagined myself sitting in the audience. “What would I be feeling? What would my experience be like”, I thought.
When I write contemporary classical music, I make a conscious effort to create different melodies that transition into one other effortlessly, smoothly, naturally. It takes great planning but shouldn’t sound as if it does. For instance, when we watch a ballerina moving so lightly and nimbly on her toes, it looks so easy. But one can only imagine how many countless hours were needed to practice to make it look that way.