12.13.25, 10:14 p.m
I want to rant about my philosophy of music, specifically composing.
Not only is this the artistic medium I have the most mastery around (15+ years first as a classical pianist), it’s also what I’m most deeply obsessed with and love.
I’m an artist, but more specifically, a composer of worlds.
Thus, I have a load of core beliefs - some contrarian - I’ll stubbornly live by until the day I die.
This time, I’ll be talking about my thesis on melody and emotional storytelling.
The number 1 thing I care about when composing a new piece is melody.
Melody is king. 99% of my ideas are melodic ideas.
And yet, school never teaches melody-making, only harmony-making.
You spend your formative years studying SATB (four-part harmony writing), but never “Melody Writing 101.” I argue it’s because you cannot teach melody.
A beautiful melody is the closest thing to magic. It comes from deep within - a pure expression of your soul.
So much of academia implicitly tells us to pursue harmonic complexity.
I call it “forced conformity disguised as ‘intellectualism’ or ‘sophistication.’” We try to be original and complex because we’re secretly scared of simplicity’s nakedness.1
Reason why I’m so adamant on melody-making is because it touches on another point:
A piece of music that means nothing is worthless.
I don’t care how harmonically complex a piece is, how intricate the structure is, or how many academic checkboxes it satisfies.
If it doesn’t move people, evoke something genuine, or tell a story, then how is it any different than some mathematical combination of frequencies and pitches?
Music is an emotional language before anything else.
It starts from within and extends outwards, as with other forms of art.
This also applies in the context of piano playing. I couldn't care less about how technically well you can play Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes but genuinely be applauding if you can make a simple Mozart Sonata sound so rich, pure, and blissful.
A letter from one of my dearest friends from abroad.
I create music to emotionally touch the lives of others. To inspire, to awaken, to transcend. This is why I’m a composer.
This letter I received from my friend means everything. And it all came from one composition I showed her, “Stargaze” (composed 6.2021).
This is why I compose. For moments like this.
Composing is the purest expression of who I am. If it means defiantly rejecting academia or breaking “traditional” rules, so be it.
I will never stop. Till the day I leave this earth.
Because this is what I’m meant to do.
And this is why I locked myself in a dorm room 8-10 hours a day and dumped ~500 hours to compose 45 pieces for my upcoming “Great China Adventure.”
Believe it or not, we’re premiering it in less than 2 weeks.
Total runtime is 2 hours 17 minutes.
This is a final, departing gift I’m giving to the world, officially marking the end of this beautiful chapter abroad in China.
Updates on my IG and trailer coming out in around a week.
And of course, a final big blog post about the film coming soon.
Be musinary,
1 I find the balance of harmony and melody to be a spectrum. Pop songs engineer melodies to be extremely catchy, memorable, and frankly addictive. Some pop music skew way too much on the simplistic side, but in academia’s case, it’s highly skewed toward the “making things complicated” side.
