MUS 185 Lecture 13: Composition
13 Oct 2015
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Document Summary
Selected passages from the entry composition in the grove dictionary of music. The activity or process of creating music, and the product of such activity. The term belongs to a large class of english nouns derived from the participial stems of latin verbs (here composit-, from componere: put together") followed by the suffix -io/-ionem. Etymologically, the primary senses of composition" are the condition of being composed" and the action of composing". Since the 16th century the english word and its cognates in other languages have been applied to pieces of music that remain recognizable in different performances as well as to the action of making new pieces. Both the creation and the interpretation of compositions in this restrictive sense are commonly distinguished from improvisation, in which decisive aspects of composition occur during performance. The distinction hinges on what performers are expected to do in various situations and on how they prepare themselves to meet such expectations.
