Do you write the sounds you hear?

Just the other day I found myself in a hazily lit apartment in Brooklyn. The party consisted of close friends gathered around a coffee table with crackers and craft beer. 

After a few laughs and sips, someone asked about what I do. 

I’m a composer. 

“That’s awesome!” 

I give my most encouraging smile. 

The person leaned in. “I always wondered, do you write down the sounds you hear in your head?”

Music composition has that mystery to it. Composers have this ability to pick up a pen and express their state of mind through sound. Musical sound goes straight to the soul that hears it. But you can’t exactly put a frame around a symphony the same way you can a painting. How are music compositions created in the first place? 

An Inner Sound World

Dreams are the birthplace of a piece of music. A composer’s inner sound world is strongly shaped by childhood and deeply transformed by the thread of life. We write what we wish to hear. We write the current relationship we have with sound. 

Like people, com…