u/Fancy_Cabbage_010

Those of you who have composed/ understand the composition of programmatic music/ music that follows a clear story (I'm thinking along the lines of Beethoven's 6th symphony, symphonie fantastique, Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture ect.) what is the best way to go about it?

do I need a rigid story?

do I allow the music to guide the narrative?

do I need to lay down leitmotifs?

In all honestly I'm a little lost but it's something I've wanted to do for a while as a bridge into more substantial works than just individual character pieces but it feels very difficult to nail down a solid progression of events or even a vague narrative, and then find musical inspiration from this/ translate it into even an overall musical architecture.

Those of you with more experience, if you've any advice/ suggestions anything is welcome I'm sick of this artistic blockage...

I've heard before that parallel 5ths and octaves are evil and that if I use them then everyone dies and ends up languishing in eternal hellfire, but I've never quite worked out to what degree they're considered evil?

Is it just in the chordal textures?

Is it in orchestral music or only piano/ solo works?

Is it restricted to certain more academically minded forms like the fugue or is it a forever rule?

I've never quite managed to pin down how this rule is to be taken, did the likes of Puccini damn us all to fester and rot forever by layering his melodies 2 or 3 octaves deep for violinata passages? Or is it just in the accompaniment where this matters to have chord tones in between certain intervals?

Obviously the tone of this isn't totally serious but I am genuinely curious if anyone has the/any answer to this most existential of questions...

so basically I'm trying to explore a more romantic era type of sound (note I say more romantic, not truly romantic, harmony wise I'm a total bumpkin lmao). This piece is very much a work in progress and will likely get a little longer as I want to explore the sort of nocturesque mood a little more thoroughly, as well as other small things like smoothing out the textures/ blending parts better, I kinda just wanted to get a general consensus as to weather its any good/ weather to keep going with it?

anything you have to say is welcome :)

ps. re-posted bc I dont think the video uploaded right.

https://reddit.com/link/1tjhi2j/video/7yw4iw6k6h2h1/player