Final blog post!
Author: Stephanie Devlin, Blogger in Residence
Hello everyone. Welcome to my final blog post! I’ve loved sharing some of my experiences of life as a young composer with you over the past year, and I really hope that you have enjoyed reading them…
I’m so grateful to ORA Singers for the opportunity to share using this platform, and to be a part of Composer Create, and having completed my year as Blogger-in-Residence it’s great to be able to look back and to see how much I have learnt since I started writing these posts. What’s next for me? Well, last month I graduated with my music degree, and so in a few weeks I’ll be starting a new job working as an intern in a church. I’m really excited, and although I won’t directly be doing musical things, I am looking forward to keeping up composing and singing in my free time.
Composing for me has always been about writing music that I love. In many ways, it was a struggle to prevent my music degree from sapping my love of composition. Being graded on something so personal seems invasive, and so I think I struggled to get a balance between writing for the sake of getting marks and writing music that I like. A few weeks ago, after I finished my degree, I sat down at our piano at home, and I was struck by how it was in that very position that I first fell in love with making music several years ago. Most of my best composing happens when I go to the piano with a completely blank mind and empty canvas. It’s when I have no pressure to write something specific or no preconceptions of what that will be that I seem to produce my most natural work. I’ve definitely said it before in a blog post, but I’m a terrible pianist. But my lack of skill aside, I love playing the piano. There is something so magical about being able to instantly create harmony out of an instrument. Sitting at that piano helped me to see again why I love composing, and why I’m so happy to be at the other side of my degree now, and able to write music just because I want to.
Write music that you like, because that’s what will make you want to keep writing, and to keep improving. Write what you would love to listen to, or perform, yourself. Write because you love music. Although it’s a cliché idea, I love that image of music speaking beyond the boundaries of language. That it’s a form of expression that says more than mere words could ever do. That’s what writing music is to me: the inner workings of my soul that words cannot begin to describe or explain.
Thanks for reading my blog! If you would like to keep updated on what projects I’m up to, or if you would like to contact me about commissions or opportunities, please do so through my website, www.stephaniedevlin.com, or through my twitter account, @stephdevlin03.
Steph x
Written by Stephanie Devlin