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Any Old Music

George Marshall

Hello. My name is George Marshall and I am the founder of Any Old Music. I am a composer with over 10-years of experience, having completed work on 50+ projects for video-games, films and the concert hall. In 2020, I completed my doctorate in Music Composition. My PhD was on constraint and how it emerges in creative projects. For example, team discussions in video-game projects. If a video-game team presented a mood-board and certain briefs, these constrain and challenge the composer to compose in a particular way or style. Less quantifiable than, say, the application of serialism, but probably just as (if not more) constraining and creatively directing. It was during my PhD that I realised that there would only be two outcomes for me as a composer: I became a professional composer who needed to compose lots of music in not enough time. I became an amateur/hobbyist or semi-professional composer who needed to compose less music but still with not enough time. With this in mind I eventually opted for something more along the lines of semi-professional, but with an ambition of setting up Any Old Music as a means of helping similarly time strapped music makers. Particularly those in the second group, the hobbyists and semi-professionals, whose composing competes much more for time against other aspects of life. Composition is incredibly rewarding. You never stop learning and developing as a composer. Furthermore, many of us boast renegade autodidactic personalities to a certain extent. My hope is that Any Old Music’s self-paced composition courses can help composers to continue growing, by learning through creating and doing so in their own time.

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Featured Post

Mastery vs Novelty

I've found myself watching quite a lot of World Cup coverage over the last few weeks. Not so much the football itself (beyond En-gur-laaand!), if I'm honest, but the discussion around it. One programme I almost always watch during international tournaments is The Overlap: Stick to Football, and recently they were discussing England winger Noni Madueke's performances. During the conversation, Gary Neville made a point that struck me as being relevant far beyond football. There's a common...

5 days ago • 1 min read

Over the past few weeks, we have explored the form, melodies, motifs, and transpositions that make up Åse's Death. Today I would like to turn to the harmony. Yet rather than beginning with the specifics and theory--Italian 6ths and secondary dominants--I would like to begin with a question. What if Grieg's music is doing more than expressing grief? A crossroads At this point in the play, Peer finds himself at a crossroads. His mother has died. He has been shunned by the community in which he...

25 days ago • 3 min read

One of the recurring themes in this series has been Grieg's economy of means. Repeatedly, we find him achieving more with less. If you are joining this series partway through, we have already explored: The binary form of the movement The arrangement of its themes The phrase structure of Melody 1 The motivic construction of Melody 2 Today I would like to look at one of the principal techniques Grieg uses to extend his material: transposition. Transposition and modulation in Åse’s Death More of...

about 2 months ago • 3 min read

One thing worth noticing in Åse’s Death is that, although the two melodies contrast strongly in character, they are not truly independent of one another. Instead, Grieg builds both from a very small pool of material. If you are joining this series partway through, over the past few weeks we have explored: The binary form of the movement The internal arrangement of the A and B sections Melody 1 and its phrase, idea, and motif structure Melody 2: Phrases and Ideas Today I would like to turn to...

2 months ago • 2 min read

We discovered a couple of weeks back that Edvard Grieg’s Ase’s Death is a binary form composition built around two melodies, with each section having its own material. In section A there is melody 1 (T1), and in section B there is melody 2 (T2). Today I want to look at how Grieg constructs melody 1, breaking down its phrase structure, the sub-phrase structure that I will call ideas, and the motifs that comprise and distinguish those ideas. Here is a PDF that includes annotations and analysis...

3 months ago • 2 min read

One thing I have never really liked about some theory, analytical, and pedagogical composition books that deal with form is how they present it. They will often tell you that a piece uses ternary form. Or sonata form. Or, as we discovered with Grieg last week: binary form in Åse’s Death. This week's annotated score/analysis: Arrangement - Åse's Death.pdf The Problem with How Form Is Often Taught However, for the student, this can create false understandings, misconceptions, and...

4 months ago • 2 min read

The longing son, weeping for a dying mother: Åse’s Death is one of the most moving moments in Grieg’s music. Yet the music avoids the melodrama we often associate with the Romantic era. Instead, it is restrained and respectful: music that mourns quietly while still expressing deep emotion and yearning. Background: Peer Gynt Åse’s Death is the second movement of Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite, drawn from the incidental music he wrote for fellow Norwegian Henrik Ibsen’s play of the same name (first...

4 months ago • 3 min read

A simple but significant change has happened in my Winnie the Pooh arrangement. The whole piece has been transposed down a tone (major 2nd) and the arrangement is now beginning to take shape in full concert band score, having reached a level of detail in the condensed sketch that felt solid enough to build from. So today, I thought I would share how that move is going: what seems to be working well, what seems less convincing, and why. Down a tone First, the decision to transpose the score...

5 months ago • 4 min read

After a steady run of Winnie the Pooh updates over the past few weeks, I thought it might be a good moment to give the Hundred Acre Wood a brief rest. In the background, I have been quietly working on something many of you will recognise. Over the years I have shared various videos, notes, and course materials analysing Grieg’s Morning Mood. Several readers have asked for something a little more concise and easier to revisit without digging through full lessons. I have finally turned that...

5 months ago • 1 min read

Perhaps it is the sickness bug talking, and I am delirious!? But, I think I may have nudged my Winnie the Pooh introduction a little further forward simply by sitting down to write to you. I had intended to report that I was stuck. Instead, what has emerged is a clearer picture of three developing versions of the opening, each revealing something useful about the direction of travel. I think they also each get closer to the introduction I would like. Below you will see extracts from each...

5 months ago • 2 min read