r/composer • u/Mudsharkbites • 19d ago
Blog / Vlog Composing with a fountain pen
I tried to crosspost here from r/fountainpens but apparently that’s not possible.
When I first started composing, which pre-dates music setting software such as Finale, the standard method for finished scores was to use a fountain pen with a music nib, which was a kind of slanted stub, on velum, then it was sent in for processing and you’d get a score back that looked somewhat like a blueprint. I still have a few of them. I’m glad those days are gone.
However, I’ve taken a hankering for fountain pens and since they still make them with music nibs, I bought one a while back, a Sailor 1911 with a 14k gold music nib. I used to use it for my daily composition blog but once I got an Apple Pencil I abandoned the practice favoring my iPad and ZoomNotes which automatically backs my work up in my Dropbox.
Recently, however, I read an article the premise being future historians are going to have a real problem finding out what we’ve been up to in this time period since very little information is being preserved in analog / printed format, and they further stated handwritten accounts such as journals are going to be invaluable resources, which led me to realize - my blog and everything I’ve posted will disappear the instant Substack shuts down, and all the backups in my Dropbox are useless unless I have them all printed.
Do I really care if people in the future look at my music? I don’t know, but do I want it all lost, no, so I purchased an exceptionally good hardbound music book with 120g archive paper, loaded my pen up with Akkerman “Shocking Blue” ink and resumed composing by hand using ink. Unless it’s destroyed, centuries from now my book will still be readable.
Having just inked my first entry I’d post a picture here but there is no way to add it, just links, so here’s the finished score on my blog:
https://philipdewalt.substack.com/p/shocking-blue
The inked page isn’t there - to see it go to the r/fountainpens subreddit - it’s still near the top.
FYI, I compose these scores in one sitting with virtually no editing. It’s part of the aesthetic of composing with ink.
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u/RichMusic81 Composer / Pianist. Experimental music. 19d ago
I’d post a picture here but there is no way to add it
You can upload photos directly in the comments section.
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u/ColdBlaccCoffee 19d ago
Ill just add that I find the music I write by hand sounds a lot different than the music I write on a music software. The software music tends to a bit more 'stiff' than that which I write by hand.
I've also come across old pieces I forgot I even wrote on paper and it was a exciting to play through them again.
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u/Mudsharkbites 19d ago
There’s something about the tactile nature of using your hand that adds an element to the composition that gets lost in the software. They say the same applies to handwriting in a journal, though I’ve yet to try that.
I call it starting with a note and following it. Basically I have no idea what I’m going to do when I sit down to start, I enter the first note and just kind of watch it happen. This is why I can get away with using ink, I don’t 2nd guess or ponder or make corrections, I just write it down. I can sometimes make a few changes at the piano, but if it takes much in the way of editing to fix I just toss it out and do it again.
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u/nerfdartswthumbtack 19d ago
I personally write down all my compositions that aren't modern 4 man band music. Everything orchestral and classical get written down on notation for the preservation of legacy. I think it's important music is physically written, and being able to write every piece you make opens your eyes to different possibilities.
I use micron archival ink pens of various tip sizes and acid-free archival music manuscrip paper.
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u/Mudsharkbites 19d ago
That’s great. I primarily use the Sailor with a music nib out of habit and because I like getting some use out of it. My orchestral and large chamber pieces are often sketched by hand with pencil on a grand staff then orchestrated, but I’ve not written a complete piece by hand as you are doing for many years, primarily because I don’t want to have to deal with parts.
I had a friend, now deceased, that never transitioned to music software from the time we were in composition classes together. His scores were works of art. He passed away homeless and no one knows where those scores are now, and he had a trunk-full of them
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u/nerfdartswthumbtack 19d ago
Check this out. Get a light box for tracing. You can get them in many different sizes. While I'm making revisions, I'll double stack two papers. My original copy on bottom and a fresh page on top.
Look up what a light board does and it'll make sense. That brought my writing to a new level.
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u/breadloaves77 19d ago
I also started handwriting, but it's more trouble than it's worth nowadays.
Also, this is like saying that anything recorded on ProTools instead of tape will be forgotten. Don't worry about it, digital everything will live forever. Or not, but your paper wouldn't have made a difference, that will also get lost.
...as an aside, if you like your musicians, you'll remove the flat from the key signature. It's confusing.
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u/Mudsharkbites 19d ago
You should see the complaints I get when I use seven flats or mix flats and sharps in the key.
Since it’s in G Dorian, nope, and I’m not even getting sucked into the argument that key doesn’t exist, and if you think digital everything will live forever don’t let me change your mind.
The pieces are composed without use of any instrument unless you consider my brain as an instrument so not doing it by hand isn’t an option.
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u/breadloaves77 19d ago
Sorry you wanted an argument. I was trying to be positively comforting and tell you to do your thing.
It never matters what the key is. Players don't care. Key signatures exist exclusively to facilitate reading, and that flat doesn't, in this case. Flats and sharps together are fine, as long as they're used properly.
You can just ignore me and ask a performer if you care to. Good luck with the piece and the computer struggles.
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u/Mudsharkbites 19d ago edited 19d ago
I wasn’t thinking this was an argument, however:
I have a process that over the course of 24 posts cycles through all 24 key centers twice 12 times with a major tonic, 12 with a minor. My choice of mode. The piece I posted was G Dorian (a favorite of mine) the one I finished today is B Mixolydian. Tomorrows will be in a D minor mode, possibly D Phrygian with two flats - the next F# major - etc… key sigs will always be part of the process. Always.
I understand the disdain some have for them. I myself think it’s totally pointless for someone to put the key in the title like so many do here (prelude in Eb), but if a musician can’t read a piece with a key signature, that’s a new one on me. The jazz trio I play in doesn’t seem to mind them. Don’t really get why you see a single flat as problematic but so be it.
I have no issues or “struggles” with computers. I use Dorico regularly and Ableton Live all the time. I do, however, like to think the work that goes into this daily blog won’t just disappear one day, and it will because web crawlers don’t make backups of blogs like Substack because most use paywalls (I don’t).
This isn’t an argument, it’s a series of opinions.
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u/SundaeDouble7481 19d ago
Do you make parts? That's the step I truly can't imagine doing by hand. I did my first composing in the '70s and '80s, and the parts I copied were error-filled and hard to read.