Developing an idea : composer

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There are some very good musical ideas floating around on this reddit. The big difference I see between "great" composers and most of us is the idea of "developing" a music idea, theme, leitmotif, whatever. Maybe some of the more experienced composers here could share their ideas about development. For instance, there have been a couple of pretty nice waltzes published recently, but they're over and done in a minute. For my money, the difference between a minute waltz and a satisfying piece of music is the development part. Gentlefolk, please share! How do you take a great idea and transform it into a great piece of music? I took some composition lessons from the jazz composer Ben Wendel and we spoke a lot about how he develops ideas. Basically he’ll come up with something. Maybe a chord progression or a melody or whatever and he breaks it down into its “characteristics” like How do the pitches relate to each other? If it’s a voicing what does it look like horizontally - could it be a

I’m a bit surprised that no one has mentioned Schoenberg here. In the first chapters of Fundamentals of Musical Composition, he highlights a number of ways to use motivic variation to develop an idea. As well, I’m pretty sure he elaborated on his philosophy of development in his other writings, specifically in the concept of developing variation as a means of melodic elaboration. (I don’t recall where all exactly I read his thoughts on it—possibly in Style and Idea or maybe in The Musical Idea and the Logic, Technique, and Art of Its Presentation? I do recall reading an interesting book that…

Developing an idea : composer

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