From David Bruce Composer. Rapper and Bassoon Quartet. Sounds strange right? Well that was the answer to my question what would happen if a classical composer like myself sets a rap to music in just the same way he’d set poetry. I teamed up with writer, poet and rapper Kaesu and the Donax Quartet for…

From David Bruce Composer.

From David Bruce Composer. I love Sibelius’s 5th Symphony. You might think "Sad Moose Calls in a Cold Bog" is an unflattering description, but Finns in my comments said it made them proud!

From David Bruce Composer. Do you know the end of Sibelius’s 5th Symphony? It’s strange, a series of sudden loud chords with an unnervingly long silence. I’ve always loved them, but some people find them very annoying. In this video I try to unpick what could have led Sibelius to compose such an ending. And…

From David Bruce Composer. Over the past few years Jacob Collier has been experimenting with what he calls the ‘Audience Choir’, where he uses his audiences like an instrument, conducting live improvisations. They initially started quite simple, but he’s been continuously expanding their scope, most recently including full chromatic modulations and cluster chords. It really…

From David Bruce Composer. Meet Ben Nobuto, a young composer of British-Japanese decent, who has a unique approach to classical music. In the video we discuss how we uses Splice Samples like ‘Alien Sample Packs’, sword samples, and more, as well as interesting techniques like mixing 31ET sounds with Even Tempered sounds; as well as…

From David Bruce Composer. Tchaikovsky is one a famously brilliant orchestral composer. He knows in intimate detail what each instrument is capable of. So I was genuinely shocked to learn that one of the most famous moments in one of his most celebrated works—the harp cadenza in the Waltz of the Flowers from the ballet…

From David Bruce Composer. People starting to compose often say ‘I had an idea, but I’m not sure what to do with it’. In this video I take the simple ‘chopsticks’ piece everyone plays on the piano when they start out, and whizz through 50 quick ways you can develop it and come up with…

From David Bruce Composer. What is dissonance? Why does everybody hate it? (unless they’re regular viewers of this channel, in which case they love it). It’s a weird phenomenon which doesn’t have a very clear definition. I explore the options. SUPPORT THE CHANNEL ON PATREON https://www.patreon.com/davidbruce MERCH: The harmonic series t-shirt https://david-bruce-composer.creator-spring.com/listing/new-harmonic-series?product=937&variation=103890 other merch: https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/david-bruce-composer…

From David Bruce Composer.

From David Bruce Composer. Can you write anything of any meaning in just 5 minutes? Particularly for an instrument you’ve never experienced before. That’s what Zoë Marlew and myself tested in this episode when we met up with Mantawoman (aka Reylon Yount) who plays the Chinese Hammered Dulcimer called the Yangqin. And we had a…

From David Bruce Composer. J Dilla’s approach to rhythm was quite revolutionary. In this video I look through the techniques he used, how drummers have attempted to play Dilla Beats, and at my own attempts to incorporate Dilla-style rhythms into my own classical compositions. SUPPORT THE CHANNEL ON PATREON https://www.patreon.com/davidbruce MERCH: In this video I’m…

From David Bruce Composer. Ludovico Einaudi is a composer I’ve always struggled to get along with. But he’s one of the most popular classical composers alive today. In this video I challenge myself to get to know his music better and see if I can come to some kind of understanding as to what it…

From David Bruce Composer. Vaporwave is a form of electronic music and internet culture that emerged in the 2010s. It generally involves stealing old tracks and slowing them down to create something weirdly nostalgic. So making a classical version it seems like a strange thing to do – but that’s why I did, with the…

From David Bruce Composer. As composers we think about melody, harmony and rhythm. But if that’s ALL we think about, we may find our music turns ‘beige’ – in this video I talk about how to use the musical space and the register of instruments to avoid the dreaded ‘Beige Belt’. SUPPORT THE CHANNEL ON…

From David Bruce Composer. In this video I hope to convince you that the humble act of arranging a piece of music can be totally transformative, a good arranger can make a modest song into something amazing and an amazing song into something even better. SUPPORT THE CHANNEL ON PATREON https://www.patreon.com/davidbruce MERCH: Beethoven 5 midi…

From David Bruce Composer. Is there more to Beethoven than Fur Elise and apparently sarcastically named "The Ode to Joy". In this video I take you on a whistle-stop tour of Beethoven’s work, highlighting the concept I think is one of the most important in his work – transcendence. 00:00 Intro 02:00 Symphonies 05:15 Concertos…

From David Bruce Composer. What do you do when your dreams of becoming an artist aren’t working out? In this very personal video I take a look the role luck played in turning my career round, and how, on reflection it wasn’t actually luck at all, but something much more important. I tried to uses…

From David Bruce Composer. How do composers write for instruments they don’t actually play? It’s a question that non-composers often ask – and one that composers themselves often ask themselves. In this video I provide some answers. SUPPORT THE CHANNEL ON PATREON https://www.patreon.com/davidbruce MERCH: The Lick Midi Sequence T-shirt I’m wearing: https://david-bruce-composer.creator-spring.com/listing/the-lick-midi other merch: https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/david-bruce-composer…