Heretics Without Theory: A Biography of Classical Composers Who "Achieve Without Learning".

The study of systematic music theory has been considered essential in the world of classical music. Harmony, counterpoint, orchestration, and fugue techniques ....... These are spoken of as essential subjects for a person to claim the name of "composer," and only after rigorous study and study are one finally recognized as a full-fledged musician. However, there are composers who have made their mark on history without such traditional education.

I don't know anything about music theory. I don't know anything about that. If I had known it, it might have hindered me" - these are the words of Erik Satie. As Takashi Yoshimatsu called himself a "self-taught musician," there are a surprising number of composers who did not take the high road of musical education. So how did they make a name for themselves? And does "talent due to illiteracy" really exist?

Satie - a man who learned but abandoned

Erik Satie (1866-1925) is, in a sense, the originator of the "deacademic composer. As a young man, he entered the Paris Conservatory, but his grades were catastrophic. While the other students around him were busy working on counterpoint and formality, he was "bored out of his mind" and took an oblique attitude toward them. In the end, he left the conservatory without even attending. In later years, however, he suddenly attended the Schola Cantorum (a conservative music school of the time) again and studied harmony (......), but in the end he simply said, "I don't need this knowledge," and rarely reflected it in his own compositional style.

Satie's works have elements of seeming "immaturity" in them, such as his frequent use of dissonance and deviations from form, but this is what made his music so appealing. Rather, his true essence may have been his attitude of "deliberately" ignoring existing musical theories. The piano pieces "Gymnopédie" and "Gnosienne," which fascinate people with their simple harmonic progression and mysterious floating sensation, were probably created because he went outside the conventional classical framework.

Mussorgsky: A heretic whose emotions preceded his theories

In the history of Russian music, one cannot talk about "composers who disregarded music theory" without mentioning Mussorgsky (1839-1881). He did not receive any formal musical education; he was only taught to play the piano as a child, and his serious composition studies were self-taught.

Mussorgsky's music is characterized by his disregard for conventional rules of harmony and counterpoint, rather incorporating Russian intonation and folk melodies directly into his music. In his opera "Boris Godunov," in particular, the melodies flow freely as if they were dialogues, creating music that is distinctly different from the German-Italian operatic tradition.

Also, the rough harmonic treatment found in the original piano version of "Pictures at an Exhibition" has many parts that, if one were familiar with music theory, one would be told that such a reckless progression would not be done. For example, in "Baba Yagar," for example, the composer treats the Zero Six chords in a dissonant manner and develops a thumping rhythm, making extensive use of sounds that a composer who has studied rigorous harmonic theory would have avoided.

Mussorgsky is representative of composers who "were able to create free and innovative music because they had not studied it," and his rough and intuitive style influenced Stravinsky and others who followed in his footsteps.

Takashi Yoshimatsu: Self-Taught Composer Born of Rock and Science Fiction

Takashi Yoshimatsu (1953-) has an unusual background as a Japanese classical composer. Self-taught in composition without formal education at a music academy, he was strongly inspired by rock and progressive rock, although he was also influenced by Debussy and Ravel.

His masterpieces such as "Atom Hearts Club Suite" and Symphony No. 1, while having the structure of traditional Western music, are full of unique sounds and colors. Yoshimatsu was not bound by traditional musical theory, but relied on his own sensibilities to create his music. Among contemporary composers, Yoshimatsu is a rare example of a composer who has followed his own path without belonging to the academia of a music academy.

His music is also unique in that he took the stance of "creating new music without abandoning tonality," rather than the avant-garde methods of serious contemporary music. Yoshimatsu's music is truly the product of "sensitivity beyond theory.

Theory or sensibility - what do we need in the end?

What the composers introduced so far have in common is "a sense of discomfort with traditional musical education. They established their own unique style by going beyond "correctness" based on musical theory and trusting their own intuition. On the other hand, they have not completely ignored theory, but have chosen and discarded necessary elements.

While classical music is bound by form and discipline, it has always been renewed by "those who try to break out of the box. Whether or not to study music theory - that is merely a difference of means, not an essential issue. In the end, the composers who will leave their mark on history may be those who "know the existing rules, but have decided for themselves how to deal with them.