Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Composer's Lounge Originality of compositions

I'm not a music major but how does one compose "classical" piano music without inadvertently copying an existing work. I occasionally think up tunes but then I ultimately resolve them by reverting to a melody that bears close resemblance to a segment of a piece I've heard in the past. Does one have to adopt a schema by which he can compose? For instance, does one have to decide which genre he will be composing in (Romantic, Classical, Baroque, Impressionistic, etc.)? In essence what is canonical classical piano literature?

That's a tough one. If it sounded nothing like any other classical piece it would be hard to claim that it was in the classical style so you are most likely going to have a left hand that is similar to something that already exists. Check out Gabriela Montero if you want to get some ideas about how you might compose in a classical style without it being just cut and paste. I've seen her in concert and she has the audience call out songs which they want her to improvise on and she picks a style to play it in which could be similar to the style of Bach, Chopin, Brahms, Mozart or whatever. When I saw her the first song suggested was "You are my sunshine" and she plays an improvization in the Baroque style which sounded like something Bach could have written except that you could still recognize the original melody. She has some CDs out which are well worth listening to which take some well known classics in different directions. They sound totally authentic as classical compositions but are also highly original, which is the goal which you have set for yourself.