Composing: inspiration or invitation?

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Bright ideas: but not all new compositions come easily

A new composition may come complete in a flash of inspiration, or it may take much longer to form. Jazz composer Jason Yarde explains how he goes about creating a new piece of music

WHERE DOES new music come from? Does it suddenly turn up in a composer’s head one day, like a light bulb turning on? Does it appear complete from first note to last, crying out to be recorded or written down? Or does it start life not as a tune but as a beat or a groove, or even a tiny fragment of a composition – like part of a puzzle of which the composer has to find the rest?

I tend to start from a rhythmical standpoint … I’m always very conscious of rhythm and where it starts

Jason Yarde

SoundJunction asked three composers – one from Western classical music, one from jazz, one from African music – to write a short composition that could be listened to and examined on this website. Each piece was intended to stand up as a piece of music in its own right – but include features that might help to show how different kinds of music are made.

Here’s jazz composer Jason Yarde describing how he first reacted to the request.

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Seed rhythm

SoundJunction asked Jason to use a short rhythm pattern somewhere within his piece – although not necessarily exactly how it was supplied to him – and to try to feature as many interesting combinations of instruments and sounds as he could.

When he calls it a ‘commission’, Jason means that he’s being set a task as a composer, to write a piece of music for a particular customer, in a particular way. In recent years he has become one of Britain’s most respected younger jazz composers – so he’s getting more and more of this kind of request, particularly from jazz festivals.

A sense of direction

Composing: inspiration or invitation?

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