Advice to Young Composers
In recent years I have received several inquiries from young composers or would-be composers, asking me: “How do you compose?”
Read more
Author: Robert Cunningham
Thoughts on Meter, Harmony, and Musical Perception
The Academic Papers section of my website includes a PDF scan of a paper that I delivered at the Music
Read more
Nocturnal Conversation
One of the chief tools of an effective composer is contrapuntal imitation. In my Nocturne for Woodwind Quartet, segments of
Read more
Melody as Organism
An effective melody is like a living organism. It develops through stages, each stage growing organically out of earlier stages.
Read more
On the Other Hand
Piano fingering is in my opinion very personal. Pianists vary considerably in hand size, flexibility, and technical skills, and these
Read more
On Scarlatti and Italy
Over a year ago, I posted here about my stay in Siena, Italy, in the summer of 1968. That was
Read more
Recording Dynamics
Producing recordings of classical music, especially Romantic music, presents unique challenges. Consider the audio profile of my Prelude No. 5 (both
Read more
The Homecoming
This program is from a recital I gave at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC in October 1992. The event was
Read more
Revising Piano Sonata No. 3
The original version of my Piano Sonata No. 3, composed in 1987, was the last significant work for which I
Read more
Heinrich Schenker’s Musical Grammar
To say that music is a language is not just a metaphor. Music has syntactical structures very akin to those
Read more
Beethoven, Liszt, and Prokofieff
Below is the program for a concert I gave in Atlanta, GA on September 5, 1986. It was, by design,
Read more
Harmonic Motion in Piano Sonata No. 4
In the archetypical classical sonata-allegro movement, the exposition moves from tonic to dominant (often via the mediant). The development is
Read more
The Origin of Themes (Piano Sonata No. 4)
My Piano Sonata No. 4 is a single-movement work, a little over 26 minutes in length, in sonata-allegro form. Within
Read more
7 Fun Facts about Prelude No. 7
1. Within my Nine Preludes for Piano Solo, Prelude No. 7 is symmetrically opposite the other scherzo-like prelude, No. 3,
Read more
Aspirations
In high school, I was the quintessential nerd, known chiefly as the school math whiz and as an intense chess
Read more