I realise that the main bulk of my compositional output lately have been songs for the masses. I've effectively stopped composing concert works (symphonic, chamber, solos etc.) that when I tried to attempt such compositions last year I was badly stumped halfway in writing, because I just didn't know how to develop my thoughts. Therefore it resulted in many rewrites - in piano-reduction sketch-form.

There exists a Jekyll and Hyde in my work: music slanted towards mass consumerism and music that is a direct translation of how my fickle mind actually behaves. Sometimes I try to marry the two: self-expression under the cover of a catchy (-enough) tune that will at least beg people to accept it. But lately, writing more songs ever than before, I am starting to drift towards mass consumerism and ditching self-expression almost effectively, even though I am still requesting for lyrics first before I put a tune to it, because to me the music not only compliments but augments the lyrics as well. Musical-theatre-style, because there's a story - the song exists within a context? Composers of the past - the great German lieder writers like Schubert, Schumann, Mahler, and the opera composers - have been working in this way.

Still I am caught in the dilemma between creating music that the audience likes and what I really like. My only escape is film and animation media, as well as underscoring for theatre productions. Nobody really pays attention to the music at this point - the focus is on the whole effect, and we're talking about the acting, the scenery, the costumes, the lines, the music - everything else. It's a wholesome experience. Until people buy the soundtrack and listen without the distraction of sights do they really pay attention to what you have written.

Maybe that's why I like to arrange music more than composition. In an arrangement you have something there to pique your creative element. You don't have to worry about audience because the composer ought to know what he wants. You're only dressing up the music so that more people will like it. And it makes me proud when someone's song which I have arranged receives favourable comment, because I had helped in the production process.

Listen to my purely-instrumental compositions, and then compare with the songs I have written that you know, be it from the musicals or somewhere else...

Game Soundtrack Demo http://sibelius2.multiply.com/music/item/37
A Child's Concise History of Garden City http://sibelius2.multiply.com/music/item/19
Xin Chao http://sibelius2.multiply.com/music/item/9