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How to Be a Composer

Episode 2

Duration: 1 hour

First broadcast: on BBC FourLatest broadcast: on BBC Four

Journalist, critic and music addict Paul Morley continues his year-long attempts to learn the art of music composition.

After taking tentative steps towards writing a piece, Morley dives head on into being a composer, seeking advice along the way from expert instrumentalists and composers such as Bond and Tan Dun.

The film captures the essence of learning to make music, showing in detail how anything from a John Williams popular film score to a Rachmaninoff or Copland symphony is composed and, by taking an obsession close to Morley's heart, observes the process of him reassessing his analytical take on music.

As the relationship between Royal Academy teachers Christopher Austin and Hannah Riddell and the students builds, Morley's confidence and knowledge flourish, culminating in a grand performance of Morley's String Quartet in the Duke's Hall. Show less

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