Composer

Theophilus Adebayo

The term composer refers to a person who creates music, particularly classical music in any form, including vocal music (for a singer or choir), instrumental music, electronic music, and music that mixes many genres. The music of a composer may be found in any genre of music, including classical music, musical theatre, the blues, traditional folk music, jazz, and popular music, to name a few. When composing music, composers often communicate their ideas via the use of musical notation.

Although musical notation serves as a set of instructions for a performer, there is a wide range of options in terms of how much the final shape of the produced piece in performance is determined by the performer.

Although the melodies, chords, and basslines of a traditional Western piece of instrumental music are all written out in musical notation, the performer has a certain amount of artistic freedom to add his or her own personal touch by varying his or her articulation and phrasing, choosing how long to hold fermatas (held notes) or pauses, and — in the case of bowed string instruments — by using different bows to create different textures. 'Interpretation' is the word used to describe the process by which a vocalist or instrumental performer determines how to play music that has already been written and notated. In terms of the tempos that are selected, the playing or singing style, or the phrasing of the melodies, the interpretations of different performers of the same piece of music may differ significantly.... Composers and songwriters who play their own music are interpreting it in the same way that those who perform other people's music are interpreting their own work. Performed practise refers to the standard set of options and methods that are available at a given moment and location, while interpretation refers to the unique choices made by a performer at a particular time and place.