The hottest Composition Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Music Topics

The Music of 'Samurai Champloo'

Animation Obsessive • 20809 implied HN points • 23 Feb 26
🎶 Music Composition
  1. A director deliberately fused hip hop with samurai-era storytelling and made music a central, visible part of the show instead of just background accompaniment.
  2. He hired underground, jazzy hip-hop producers like Nujabes, Tsutchie, Fat Jon, and Force of Nature and gave them creative freedom so the soundtrack often competes with the visuals, creating tension and unexpected emotional layers.
  3. That melancholic, lo-fi, jazz-influenced sound didn’t catch on in Japan at first but became a big international hit and helped popularize the lo-fi/jazz-hip-hop aesthetic in animation and beyond.

Learn Phrygian In Zero Days

Astral Codex Ten • 10530 implied HN points • 01 Jan 26
🎶 Music Composition
  1. The piece claims you can learn the Phrygian mode instantly, promising to teach it in "zero days".
  2. The article is behind a paywall and is available only to paid subscribers.
  3. It includes clear calls to action to subscribe or sign in and options to share the post.

Prelude no. 1 in C major---music you should know by name

Disaffected Newsletter • 1099 implied HN points • 22 Jun 24
🎶 Music Composition
  1. Bach's Prelude no. 1 in C Major is a beautiful and well-known piece of music that many people recognize, even if they don't know its name.
  2. The piece is part of a collection called the Well-Tempered Clavier, which showcases different musical keys and tuning systems.
  3. You can hear similarities between Bach's Prelude and the song 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina', showing how classical music influences modern songs.

Kitty's Bordello

Pizza Party • 28 implied HN points • 25 Feb 26
🎨 Art & Illustration Composition
  1. Background characters and small visual details can hide important story beats that deepen the narrative.
  2. A seemingly minor character like Hans the bartender can be essential to preserving and connecting the story.
  3. Paying attention to subtle details makes a story richer, because tiny elements can change how the plot is remembered.

GO BIG!

DrawTogether with WendyMac • 1297 implied HN points • 11 Feb 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Composition
  1. Visual composition in drawing is key to achieving the desired impact of your artwork, focusing on elements like focal point, balance, movement, and interestingness.
  2. Drawing big can push you out of your comfort zone and lead to more interesting and engaging artwork, as you pay closer attention to details and take up more space in your drawing.
  3. Taking inspiration from artists like Georgia O'Keefe can encourage you to experiment, push boundaries, and capture the essence of your subject in a unique and captivating way.
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Book Review: Mozart the Performer

Atlas of Wonders and Monsters • 407 implied HN points • 12 Nov 25
🎶 Music Composition
  1. The book illustrates how Mozart was not just a great composer but also a talented performer. It emphasizes the importance of his live shows and theatrical personality.
  2. It focuses on understanding why Mozart made specific musical choices, moving beyond just historical context to explore aesthetic reasons for his unique style.
  3. Reading the book is a rewarding experience, but it demands that the reader engage with the music. Hearing Mozart's pieces deepens the understanding of his writing and creativity.

The Missing Now

Dada Drummer Almanach • 235 implied HN points • 07 Dec 25
🎶 Music Composition
  1. AI runs in time as computation but has no subjective "now" or lived sense of duration, so it analyzes musical sequences without experiencing their unfolding.
  2. AI can copy and combine musical patterns well enough to move listeners, but it lacks embodiment, genuine spontaneity, and true improvisational presence, which often makes its music feel derivative or airless.
  3. AI might develop more creative practice if built to iterate, adapt to feedback, and collaborate with humans, otherwise it will mostly reinforce past patterns and risk homogenizing musical culture.

Rosie Carr (Interview)

Flow State • 569 implied HN points • 12 Jan 24
🎶 Music Composition
  1. Rosie Carr combines homemade instruments with field recordings and trip-hop percussion in her music.
  2. Gardening and ambient music can both have a meditative effect.
  3. Rosie Carr draws influences from a variety of musicians in her compositions.

My brother-in-law is a genius

Thinking about... • 496 implied HN points • 07 Jun 25
🎶 Music Composition
  1. The phrase 'my brother-in-law is a genius' isn't commonly said, but it can be true for some people. In this case, the brother-in-law is an accomplished opera composer with award-winning works.
  2. Dan Shore's music often reflects contemporary themes while drawing from classical styles, making his operas unique and relatable. He uses his talent to express current events through his performances.
  3. In tough times, music can offer comfort and connection. Sharing songs that mix serious themes with humor can help people cope better with challenging situations.

Cura

Eric Harper • 79 implied HN points • 31 May 24
🎶 Music Composition
  1. Writing religious music can challenge preconceived notions and lead to unexpected personal growth.
  2. Combining diverse musical influences can result in unique and meaningful compositions.
  3. Practicing different styles and collaborating with others can expand creativity and reach new audiences.

On Mahler

Something to Consider • 39 implied HN points • 17 Jun 24
🎶 Music Composition
  1. Gustav Mahler's music feels unique because it's complex and doesn't fit into traditional categories of melody and harmony. His pieces blend several melodies together in a way that feels seamless.
  2. He composed music without being tied to the piano, using multiple staves instead. This means he imagined his music without testing it out, much like coding without running the program until it's done.
  3. Despite not having a large amount of music, Mahler's works are filled with deep emotions and beauty. His few compositions leave a lasting impact that few others can match.

Studio Notes: Gloaming

SJF • 137 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
🎶 Music Composition
  1. The new track 'Gloaming' showcases a change in composing style since 'Meditations.'
  2. Attention to frequencies and layering helped improve the sound quality of the music.
  3. Blending electronic and orchestral instruments adds an organic feel to the music.

A lake that's on fire

The Day After Tomorrow • 79 implied HN points • 20 Apr 24
🎶 Music Composition
  1. AI can now create music by using poems and other inputs, making it easier for people without musical skills to share their creativity.
  2. This technology challenges our ideas about who can be a musician and what music truly means, as machines can produce similar emotional experiences as humans.
  3. As AI music becomes more common, we may need to rethink how we value music and the connections we feel to it, regardless of whether it's made by humans or machines.

Photo highlight: Week 2

One bag many places • 59 implied HN points • 12 Apr 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Composition
  1. The author uses weekly photo highlights to improve their photography skills by analyzing what worked and what didn't.
  2. The addition of a human element in photos can transform them from capturing objects to telling a story about people, adding depth and meaning.
  3. The author grapples with the ethical considerations of taking photos of strangers in public spaces, choosing to prioritize anonymity and respect.

Received Wisdom

Dada Drummer Almanach • 62 implied HN points • 19 Jun 25
🎶 Music Composition
  1. Giacinto Scelsi viewed composing differently; he saw himself as a spiritual medium instead of just a composer. He believed he was receiving ideas rather than creating them.
  2. Scelsi's music is tied up in a mystery, with questions about what truly constitutes his music — the improvisations he made, the recordings, or the transcriptions by others.
  3. Frances-Marie Uitti, a close collaborator of Scelsi, interprets his music as a flowing, continuous thought that can be deeply felt and experienced, rather than just heard plainly.

Homeric Redshirts and Iliad 10

Painful Signs, Or, Joel's Substack • 59 implied HN points • 13 Dec 23
📚 Literature Composition
  1. The introduction of Dolon in Iliad 10 serves as a strategic element to provide rest and anticipation in the epic, suggesting it is integral to the overall theme and composition.
  2. Dolon's character in Iliad 10 is complex, with his appearance, relationship to wealth, and status as a single son with five sisters all playing significant roles in understanding his role in the story.
  3. Ancient scholars drew connections between Dolon's traits, such as his greed and appearance, to deeper themes like heroism in response to the actions of characters like Achilles, offering insights into how characters are developed in Homeric poetry.

Christian Wolff

Dada Drummer Almanach • 86 implied HN points • 30 Jan 25
🎶 Music Composition
  1. Music exists through performance, meaning it comes alive when played by musicians. The written score is important, but it doesn't define the music completely.
  2. Christian Wolff contributed to a style of music that allows performers to interpret and play it in different ways. This makes each performance unique.
  3. Wolff was part of the New York School of composers, which focused on new musical ideas and included famous figures like John Cage. Their work influenced how we think about music today.

Free Form Radicals

Dada Drummer Almanach • 33 implied HN points • 17 Jul 25
🎶 Music Composition
  1. Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) started in the 1960s and aimed to create music for everyone, breaking free from traditional rules and ideas.
  2. Their work involved both improvisation and audience participation, showing a desire to push boundaries and create a communal music experience.
  3. Over time, MEV's approach evolved, moving from collective experimentation to individual performances, but they still sought to maintain a sense of political and artistic freedom.

On making music with the machine

#machineCROON • 6 implied HN points • 13 Dec 25
🎶 Music Composition
  1. AI music tools have evolved from slow, raw, and wildly creative models that produced messy but interesting sounds to faster, more polished apps that are easier to use but less likely to hit that chaotic magic.
  2. Making music with these systems is a hands-on, iterative craft—seed, prompt, generate, edit, listen— and that process can make a creator feel like the voice even while the model borrows heavily from existing artists.
  3. Combining classical seeds and narrative prompts with AI can yield new concept works and powerful stories, but it also raises real questions about authorship and theft, so responsible attribution and effort matter if the work is to be more than mere plagiarism.

Steelmanning Polytheism

Going Awol • 79 implied HN points • 10 Feb 23
📖 Philosophy Composition
  1. The argument for polytheism can be strengthened by philosophical concepts like the Unrestricted Modal Ontological Argument and Unrestricted Composition.
  2. Unrestricted Composition theory explains the concept of objects being composed by multiple concrete objects, supporting the idea of a collection of Gods in polytheism.
  3. Objections to polytheism, such as issues with the maximal greatness and intrinsic value of multiple Gods, can be addressed through philosophical reasoning and alternative perspectives.

Cut-ups

Dada Drummer Almanach • 72 implied HN points • 07 Jan 25
🎶 Music Composition
  1. Can was a unique rock band formed in 1968, made up of musicians with diverse backgrounds in classical music, jazz, and even astrology. They aimed to create spontaneous music that broke traditional boundaries.
  2. Their approach involved improvisation and experimentation, often pushing the limits of what rock music could be. This made their albums innovative and influential on many modern artists.
  3. One of the band's interesting practices was to leave their instruments recording in a room to capture unexpected sounds, showing their commitment to spontaneity and creativity in music.

The Two Types of Writing Problems

Desk Notes by Charles Schifano • 48 implied HN points • 12 Nov 24
📚 Literature Composition
  1. Writing problems can be split into two main types: composition issues and expression issues. Composition deals with how to arrange your words, while expression is about capturing your thoughts.
  2. When you know what you want to say but can't find the right words, it's usually a composition problem. There's often a solution or guide that can help you find the right way to say it.
  3. Writing is a mix of sharing what you're thinking and continuously refining it. It's okay to struggle; the goal is to bring the ideas in your mind to life on the page.

Five ways I sharpen my writing

A Bit Gamey • 47 implied HN points • 03 Nov 24
📚 Literature Composition
  1. Always know your purpose when writing. It helps you stay focused and get your message across clearly.
  2. Use a friendly and personal tone in your writing. It makes people connect with you and enjoy what you share.
  3. Keep your writing concise by using strong verbs and cutting out unnecessary words. This makes your points clearer and more powerful.

Nature's Bounty

Ear Worm • 19 implied HN points • 21 Jun 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Composition
  1. Václav Hálek's compositions are unique and explore the artist's natural condition.
  2. Hálek combined his love for foraging with his ear for new music, composing pieces based on mushrooms, flowers, trees, and people.
  3. Hálek's artistic method gave voice to the natural world, reflecting his deep connection with nature.