expression, their
composed
nature is overlooked. And yet the writer/composer puts together letter with letter, word with word, and sentence with sentence to make a meaningful work. He or she is composing not only with the resources of words, but with the ideas and denotations that these words represent. The composition, then, is more than a technical and aesthetic act of “putting things together to create proportionate and beautiful form”; it is an act of conveying meaning, just as a visual artist or musical composer creates and conveys meaning.
The Act of Composition
“Putting things together” is a general description of the act of composing. What does the compositional process entail; what are its constituent elements and practices? First, it is a matter of the overall
conception
of the piece. That conception may be fully formed at the start of the composition, or it may emerge through the juxtaposition of different and separate elements. In a fully formed conception, the act of composing will be one of seeking the elements to realize the conception and putting them together in an arrangement that matches as closely as possible the original conception. When the work is not fully conceived from the start, there will be a period of collection of fragments, ideas, and materials in a number of media that can be laid out and then put together. Whether the making is fully conceived from the start or emerges in the process of making the selection of elements (which mode or modes, which media, which
resources?
) is crucial.
Their
layout
is also important. Some composers (depending on their preferred and principal medium) like to work on a large table, others on a computer screen, and others on canvas or wood or paper. Directors oftheatre productions—to take art forms in the wider sense that includes performance—see the empty three-dimensional space as their frame for composition. The framed space for composition is a key defining feature of the nature of that composition, though we have to acknowledge that the computer screen is itself like a window or panel on to or as part of a scroll. Large computer screens allow for a number of “windows” (usually texts, including images or diagrams and tables) to be open at any one time and thus to be composed—brought together into a new work. Whether on screen, on paper, on a large table, or in a rehearsal space, the
physicality
of composing is felt by all composers.
Next is the art of
contiguity
and
juxtaposition
. Resources have edges. They are brought together, configured, and arranged in order to make meaning. This arrangement may be spatial; it may be linear. But which element goes next to another element is central to the making of meaning. In linear arrangements (most verbal printed works and narratives) the connections between the elements are set out, logically or quasi-logically, and have all the properties and affordances that
sequentiality
gives, including the classical principle of
post hoc propter hoc
. Linearity might also be manifested in time, for example, in the frames of a film that is experienced as continuous motion in time.
(As a further example, although I composed this chapter last in the first draft of the present book and it was originally conceived as coming between the chapter on multimodality and that on digitization, it is placed as Chapter 4 between one on English studies and one on power in order to suggest that composition might be a central concern to expression and the development of a repertoire of genres. Those are concerns about composition in the larger structural sense. As I actually composed it, the to-ing and fro-ing between the larger structural design and the actualities of writing the words on an electronic page, with attention to accuracy of spelling, the make-up of sentences, and the positioning of sections and paragraphs within sections, all took place. Because I was working on a computer, I could move sections, paragraphs,
composed
nature is overlooked. And yet the writer/composer puts together letter with letter, word with word, and sentence with sentence to make a meaningful work. He or she is composing not only with the resources of words, but with the ideas and denotations that these words represent. The composition, then, is more than a technical and aesthetic act of “putting things together to create proportionate and beautiful form”; it is an act of conveying meaning, just as a visual artist or musical composer creates and conveys meaning.
The Act of Composition
“Putting things together” is a general description of the act of composing. What does the compositional process entail; what are its constituent elements and practices? First, it is a matter of the overall
conception
of the piece. That conception may be fully formed at the start of the composition, or it may emerge through the juxtaposition of different and separate elements. In a fully formed conception, the act of composing will be one of seeking the elements to realize the conception and putting them together in an arrangement that matches as closely as possible the original conception. When the work is not fully conceived from the start, there will be a period of collection of fragments, ideas, and materials in a number of media that can be laid out and then put together. Whether the making is fully conceived from the start or emerges in the process of making the selection of elements (which mode or modes, which media, which
resources?
) is crucial.
Their
layout
is also important. Some composers (depending on their preferred and principal medium) like to work on a large table, others on a computer screen, and others on canvas or wood or paper. Directors oftheatre productions—to take art forms in the wider sense that includes performance—see the empty three-dimensional space as their frame for composition. The framed space for composition is a key defining feature of the nature of that composition, though we have to acknowledge that the computer screen is itself like a window or panel on to or as part of a scroll. Large computer screens allow for a number of “windows” (usually texts, including images or diagrams and tables) to be open at any one time and thus to be composed—brought together into a new work. Whether on screen, on paper, on a large table, or in a rehearsal space, the
physicality
of composing is felt by all composers.
Next is the art of
contiguity
and
juxtaposition
. Resources have edges. They are brought together, configured, and arranged in order to make meaning. This arrangement may be spatial; it may be linear. But which element goes next to another element is central to the making of meaning. In linear arrangements (most verbal printed works and narratives) the connections between the elements are set out, logically or quasi-logically, and have all the properties and affordances that
sequentiality
gives, including the classical principle of
post hoc propter hoc
. Linearity might also be manifested in time, for example, in the frames of a film that is experienced as continuous motion in time.
(As a further example, although I composed this chapter last in the first draft of the present book and it was originally conceived as coming between the chapter on multimodality and that on digitization, it is placed as Chapter 4 between one on English studies and one on power in order to suggest that composition might be a central concern to expression and the development of a repertoire of genres. Those are concerns about composition in the larger structural sense. As I actually composed it, the to-ing and fro-ing between the larger structural design and the actualities of writing the words on an electronic page, with attention to accuracy of spelling, the make-up of sentences, and the positioning of sections and paragraphs within sections, all took place. Because I was working on a computer, I could move sections, paragraphs,
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