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Articles on Composition

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Musicians and producers can already utilize AI to realistically reproduce the sound of any instrument or voice imaginable. Paul Campbell/iStock via Getty Images

3 ways AI is transforming music

AI can streamline the painstaking work of mixing and editing tracks. But it’s also easy to see how AI-generated music will make more money for giant streaming services at the expense of artists.
Nardi Simpson plays the square piano, similar to one that arrived on the First Fleet. Jamie Kidston

Four Indigenous composers and a piano from colonial times — making passionate, layered, honest music together

Four Indigenous composers were asked to create works for a square piano from a painful period in our nation’s history. They did so in creative, honest and powerful ways.
Fireworks explode behind the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, (AP Photo/David J. Phillip,Pool)

Music of champions: How CBC and NBC Olympic themes shape our differences

CBC and NBC’s theme music that fills our ears before and after commercials and quietly accompanies intimate athlete profiles can actually have an impact on the way we view sports.
Four Seasons of the Canadian Flag, painted by Maxwell Newhouse for John Burge. (Maxwell Newhouse)

Powerful painting inspires composer to connect Canadians

Composer John Burge speaks of his drive to create a musical piece to mark Canada’s 150th year of confederation and to capture our collective experiences.
Women face serious barriers to reaching the upper echelons of classical composing and conducting. Nicki Mannix

The sound of silence: why aren’t Australia’s female composers being heard?

The rate of female composers working in Australia hasn’t risen in seven years. At one leading ensemble, 41 of 47 composers commissioned have been men. What’s going wrong, and how can it be fixed?
Music notation itself has changed from the early modern period to the present day. Provenance Online Project/flickr

Musical literacy: a skill of some note(s)

Technological advances in music production have all but obliterated the need for popular music to be transcribed into musical notation. So why is musical literacy still important?
Breakdown was an interactive audiovisual dance performance at Ears Eyes and Feet in May this year, Austin Texas. Rodrigo Carvalho, Yago de Quay, Sunny Shen

Explainer: interactive composition

Computers have shaken up how we create and listen to music, and there is more radical transformation to come. The potential for digital music to be interactive is leading to new ways to experience and…
Maxime Pascal conducts the Argonaut Ensemble at BIFEM. Jason Tavener

Why Bendigo’s exploratory music festival is worth trumpeting

What, one might wonder, is the value of an international festival of exploratory music? And why is it in Bendigo, in north-west Victoria? In Australia, we have so many festivals featuring music, film…
It is the landscape of the interior that is most strongly associated with Sculthorpe’s music. 'Two movements - Peter Sculthorpe', a portrait by Danelle Bergstrom, 2008 Archibald Prize. AAP/ Supplied

Sculthorpe shaped composers with a connection to this land

Australia’s most distinguished composer Peter Sculthorpe (1929-2014) has left a magnificent legacy – his music. Sculthorpe pioneered a uniquely Australian sound. The distinctiveness of his music emerges…

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