How I Got Into Instrumental Music (Part Six)

This post will be the last documenting how I got into instrumental music, and talks about how it all fits into how I compose now.

I've been fascinated by New Age music since it began. I believe the real seeds of what we call "New Age" were sown long ago in the mystical musics of older civilizations. That is very much evident in a lot of the progressive rock that I profile elsewhere in the blog. I trace another aspect of the style, though, to Erik Satie. You've probably heard Satie's Gymnopedia No. 1 without knowing what it was. It just sort of played in the background.

Fast forward several decades to an album I listened to a lot in the 1980s by an otherwise obscure artist named Tim Story, who caught my ear on a Windham Hill sampler. In my opinion, Story is very much a musical descendent of Satie. The kind of music he does is the kind I think Satie would do if he had access to today's technology.

As I see it, there's also a bigger sound in the genre, one that bears the influence of progressive rock. This aspect is symbolized for me by Mike Oldfield. Oldfield is best known for his contribution to the music of the iconic motion picture "The Exorcist," but he did lots of other music, too. I listened a lot back in the day to his "Hergest Ridge" album. Listening to the first few minutes of it should give you a feel for how he worked. Unlike a lot of the other people here, Oldfield liked a big, orchestral sound.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Jonn Serrie. He is best known as a composer of space music; indeed, his first work was for planetariums. Below is the title track from his first album.

So where does all of this leave me? I think I split the difference in a lot of ways. The music I like to compose contains elements of all of the above, plus influences of Western classical music.

Most of the stuff above consists of very simple repetition and variations of a musical thought. A music theorist represents form with letters. Take a pop song. The verse is 'A.' The chorus might be 'B.' If there's a contrasting bridge in the middle, that might be 'C.' The music above is mostly 'A' over and over. As for me, I like a bit more form in my music, some 'B' and even 'C' to go with my 'A.' And one more thing. I like rhythm and percussion.

Hopefully, you can hear these influences and more on my first independent release, "Circadia."