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.
What a Philosopher of Creativity Taught Me About Music
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This morning, during a Zoom lesson with one of my students, I was introducing the ideas of philosopher and cognitive scientist, Margaret Boden: particularly her concepts of P and H creativity and the Three Roads to Surprise. In the middle of explaining her work, I decided to remind myself of some details. So, I typed her name into google and that’s when I discovered she had passed away last year at the age of 88. It was a sobering moment. Not because I'd been drinking first thing this morning, but because here I was, sharing her ideas: ideas that have shaped how I think about composing and creativity itself, only to realise the person behind them had recently left us. It made me reflect on just how much her thinking continues to live through creative practice. Boden’s writing tackles a deceptively simple question: what does it really mean to be creative? She distinguished between two kinds of creativity:
When I first encountered these ideas, they completely shifted my mindset as a composer. I had always assumed that being creative meant producing something unprecedented: every piece had to reinvent the wheel. But Boden made me realise that personal originality is just as valid. Each new step, each experiment, is part of the larger process of becoming more inventive. Her framework also includes three “roads to surprise”:
These aren’t just abstract concepts, they are practical creative tools. When you’re stuck, try combining unexpected materials or idioms. Understanding which of these roads you are on and why can bring clarity and momentum to your work. For me, it has taken the pressure off having to be “original” every time I sit down to write. Creativity, as Boden saw it, is less about genius and more about exploration and evolution. Just as a muscle can only get stronger through repetition, so too can your craft. I’ve re-shared the video I made about her work a few years ago, but also as a reminder of how vital these ideas remain: It’s a fitting way to remember a thinker whose ideas continue to help us understand not only how we create, but why. As always, any questions, thoughts or feedback: get in touch! All the best, P.S. Thanks for reading, I am working on an article about orchestrating melodies. It should be ready in a couple of weeks, I'll be in touch again soon. |
Any Old Music
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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