The holy grail of classical music writing, and the one format that separates its practitioners’ true masters from those of a less accomplished status, is the symphony for full orchestra. Even Beethoven who had been writing music since he was 11 years old didn’t complete his first symphony until he was 29. Vaughn Williams didn’t complete his until he was 38! Doing so is not for the faint of heart. A person with the cognitive ability to pull off such a feat, were they to apply their efforts to more practical pursuits, would indeed likely find themselves to be extremely successful, financially and otherwise. Nevertheless, I will provide broad instructions on how to write a symphony.
Purchase a velocity sensitive midi keyboard
You’re not going to be able to write a symphony, much less learn how to write a symphony, by using a bassoon, or even a guitar. The only instrument that will give you any chance of pulling this off is the piano. It’s the only instrument where complex, dense polyphonic information can be worked out relatively easily.
And when you are writing your music, you’ll want to have instantaneous feedback, to make sure you’re pointed in the correct direction. Thus you need a midi keyboard that can attach to a computer that houses an orchestral sample library, capable of playing back your orchestral music.
In other words, don’t fall for the 19th century caricature of a composer at their piano, and go and purchase that behemoth instrument.
Build a music production computer
These days a powerful music production computer, that has a digital audio workstation as well as a separate drive for an orchestral sample library, can be built for relatively cheap.
Discounting ancillary items, like a computer monitor, or a keyboard and mouse, I was able to cheaply build a fancy computer that easily handles Spitfire Audio’s Symphony Complete orchestral sample library. With it I can run 50 orchestral midi tracks, and the CPU temperature doesn’t even budge upwards from its baseline, while only around 30% of the RAM gets used.
Related: check out my article, How to Build a Music Production Computer, which provides PC building educational resources, specs needed for a modern music production computer and its auxiliary hardware, the parts list of the computer I built in 2024, and personalized instructions on how to build that particular PC. Also for even more details, check out a related article entitled, Best Computer for Orchestral Composing, which lists spec requirements for popular orchestral sample libraries alongside a dedicated discussion on specs.
Learn to play piano
You needn’t be proficient on the piano to use it to write music. Your skill set can simply be the ability to play a melody with your right hand, and outline the harmonic structure that accompanies such by means of playing chords with your left.
The beauty of using a digital audio workstation with your midi keyboard, is that you can record ideas into it, and then correct errors or imperfect performances, through the use of the mouse. And you can record in as much or as little compositional information for any given pass, as you please. You can, for instance, record your ideas in measure by measure if you wish.
The digital audio workstation is not much analogically different than the computer Stephen Hawking used to create his sentences. Even the lousiest players, as long as they can dream up musical ideas in their head, can realize them in this fashion.
Learn music theory
Learn enough music theory that you are able to analyze jazz harmony, and the complex harmony of early 20th century classical music, which are often one in the same.
Learn melodic writing, counterpoint, and basic accompaniment
I see a lot of film composers on YouTube, who will record in a musical idea based on a chord progression that has a rhythmic accompaniment feel to it. Then they will attempt to write a melody over such. This is likely derived from writing pop music earlier in their careers. Or from simply existing totally in the realm of film music, where the intellectual demands are not as great as what is necessary to write concert music.
But if you want to have any hope of writing serious classical music, you’re going to want to write melodies as your primary musical ideas, with all the other elements of music revolving around those.
counterpoint
You should also be striving to understand and use counterpoint in your music. Canonic ideas are the most common or feasible. But even strict tertiary or quaternary ideas sometimes can have a nice effect, and provide a deeper intellectual component to your music. Non-strict or unrelated counter melodies should also have their place in your writing.
accompaniment
How piano accompaniment is written is significantly different than how such is done utilizing the full textural, and timbral force of the orchestra. However when first learning the mechanics of writing melodies, counterpoint, and accompaniment, it’s best to just start off writing chamber music, with one or two players, say a violin or a violin and a viola, being accompanied by a piano.
It’s fairly easy to make even the most lacking musical ideas sound epic and beautiful utilizing a full orchestra, at least to those whose listening experience is limited to film music. So starting off writing chamber music, where your ideas are mostly naked and exposed, is your best bet at truly learning these elements of music.
Learn melodic/musical development
Being able to develop on previously written musical ideas is critical to writing larger scale pieces of music. Also being able to create climaxes and recessions in such development is also equally important, especially for orchestral writing.
Learn musical form
At the heart of how to write a symphony is musical form. This isn’t a hard concept to grasp, but like everything in this process, it will take practice in creating structured formats for your music.
If you’re not familiar with the concept of musical form the best way to understand it is to examine that of a popular song. The Format is generally a verse, a chorus, a verse, a chorus, a break of some sort, and then a few more iterations of the chorus before the song ends. Or in other words the format is A B A B C B B.
In the world of classical music forms can be as simple as just A B A, or they can own more complex structures such as ABA CDC ABA, EFE GHG EFE, ABA CDC ABA, where each reiteration of a section of music is a developed version of its primary statement. However they need not be so balanced as what has been stated thus far. The second movement of my second symphony owns a unique form built around the structure of ABC ABC. My first symphony is more programmatic and adventurous, where the structure is more analogous to alphabet soup.
Start analyzing your favorite composers’ orchestral works using everything you’ve learned so far
Learn orchestration from your favorite composers. I personally found it helpful when analyzing an orchestral score, to use a pencil and staff paper, and create a sketch score, or reduced score, all transcribed to concert pitch, for a given section I wanted to know something about. It’s a lot easier to comprehend what’s going on when the music is all on three or fourth staves, as opposed to a few dozen staves on a modern orchestral score.
Learn the basic technical limitations of each instrument, and which are more agile than others. Listen for textures or effects you like in your favorite composers’ works, then examine their corresponding scores for how they created them. Maybe even try to replicate those textures in small 10 to 30 second clips of your own musical ideas.
focus on modern orchestral scores
I would primarily focus on scores written in the 20th century. Scores from the 19th century often utilize archaic instruments, especially in the horns. I personally learned orchestration from examining Vaughan Williams scores. I specifically examined effects like how he constructed that big wall of brass sound, in certain sections of his music; his angelic con sord. string divises, derived from the French School of Music, how to construct doublings when tertiary or quaternary counterpoint is it play in the music, etc.
My personal orchestration generally isn’t as complex as Vaughan Williams’ though, as he has no reservations in having, say, a first clarinet play a melody while the second clarinet plays a counter melody, or a more accompaniment type line. This level of polyphony is a nightmare to deal with in a computer-based music notation program, such as Finale. And thus I will handicap my orchestration, to make it easier on myself when it comes to the point of making the written score and parts for the players.
Stop listening to anything with a drum beat including jazz, and only focus on classical listening.
Music that features a steady drumbeat throughout, as pervasive as it is, is distorted with respect to the individual elements of music, working in balance with one another. When a minimalistic repetitive drum beat is present, all the other elements of music are deferential to it, significantly attenuating their abilities to expand to their full potential, with regard to creativity, ingenuity, and intellectual construction.
Related: check out my article entitled, Classical Music vs Pop Music, for a better understanding of how each of these treats the different elements of music.
Listening to music with a drum beat is poison to the musical mindset needed to write large-scale orchestral works, or even small chamber works for that matter. Thus you’re going to want to have a strict listening diet as you develop your compositional technique.
Start writing one to two minute sections of orchestral music
You can keep it simple at first and make it sound like film music cues, just keep in mind that in order to write serious concert music, your musical language will need to be a lot more detailed, creative, informationally dense, and complex than film scoring.
Learn to write fast music, slow music and music in 6/8 and 3/4 as well.
Also in order to write a symphony, you will need to know how to write fast music for orchestra, slow music, and music with triplet related meters. Each of these has their own characteristics, and learning these is the equivalent of learning different ball games like football, basketball, or baseball. In other words, just because you’re good at one of these doesn’t mean you are automatically proficient in all of them.
utilize structured formats in these sections
Make sure your practice sections have predetermined structures, like an ABA form, or an ABA CDC ABA form; and make sure there is continuous development throughout. For example if you’re creating something in an ABA form, that second iteration of the A section could be bolder, more climactic, maybe using the full orchestra, then winding down. This also entails you learn how to build music up into a climax in the last part of that B section. And of course you must also learn how to wind it back down.
Write enough one to two minutes sections of music, that it becomes instinct to take an abstract idea in your mind and realize it on your digital audio workstation. Also get comfortable sketching ideas out fully, and then coming back to fully orchestrate the ideas once all are in place.
You should also have experienced, by this point, dozens of hard won musical epiphanies, that only present themselves through the act of writing. These can’t be taught or learned by means of reading, watching instructional videos, or even looking over other composer’s scores.
Start writing full orchestral pieces
Your next step in how to write a symphony is to take everything you’ve learned thus far and write complete pieces of music that are perhaps 5 to 10 minutes in length. Write enough of these that you can produce a professionally sounding product in a musical language that is distinctly yours. Write pieces that community orchestras could play, as well as those professional orchestras could play.
get familiar with common music notation programs
At this point you should also learn to notate your music by importing your midi files into Finale, Dorico, or a Sibelius.
Get comfortable notating harp pedaling, and using all the accents, dynamic markings, legato and slur tying, etc. That will allow live players to replicate what is happening in your digital audio workstation. And make sure you know the ins and outs of this: tying notes together in string parts means something different than tying notes together in woodwind parts.
I recommend a book called Music Notation, a Manual of Modern Practices, by Gardner Reed.
How to write a symphony: understanding the symphonic form
After you have gained about 10 to 15 years of writing experience, through everything laid out above, familiarize yourself with the large-scale symphonic form by again referencing your favorite composers. There is a lot of variation here for modern symphonies, so you need not stick to the traditional forms taught at university, based on the Classical and Romantic eras of music.
The first movements of my symphonies all do about the same thing: they have a moderately fast tempo, and present a few themes or motive driven sections, then they have a more subdued, quieter and slower middle section to give the audience a break, and lastly they reiterate the primary section in a developed fashion where the music for the most part continuously builds up to a final climax, over several minutes, and then concludes.
The second movements of my symphonies are generally slower, quieter, and more lyrical, but also showcase a climax of some sort.
And for my second and third symphonies, their third movements are built around 6/8 meter, and have a scherzo type feel to them. My first symphony is a unique case, which, in lieu of a scherzo movement, I incorporated sections, throughout its entirety, that are in 6/8 meter, or the equivalent. Indeed that particular symphony is the most variant from traditional symphonic form, owning lots of incidental or tangential ideas, giving it a more programmatic feel.
Inter-movement congruency
Again it’s worth reemphasizing that you should have your own musical voice and language before you attempt to write a symphony, otherwise you run the risk of composing three or four pieces that are not stylistically congruent with one another.
Even so, when creating your symphony, you should always have in the back of your mind the notion that you should be using development as a means of tying the separate movements together, such that they are all one, homogeneous large-scale work. Maybe one of the themes, or motifs, from the first movement is developed in a manner that creates a theme or piece of development in a subsequent movement, for instance. Maybe each movement is describing an element based on an overall programmatic theme: my third symphony’s movements describe different climates upon the Earth, as another example.
Lifestyle
There is a reason that the greatest symphonies written in the last few hundred years were done so by people with virtually no time constraints, regarding the production of music.
Men like Vaughan Williams or Arnold Bax were independently wealthy, and needed not work a dreary day job, which allowed them to sit at their pianos has much or as little as needed to write credible music.
Beethoven and Tchaikovsky had rich patrons which bought them invaluable time to work on their music.
consistently write throughout the week
You basically need at least 20 or 30 hours per week free to pursue this level of composition.
And as you are developing your musical voice, you will need to be thinking about and writing music throughout the week. It’s not feasible to just write on the weekends, as one’s shorter-term memory is a limiting factor: you will have forgotten your compositional mindset from one weekend to the next, which will attenuate the congruence, and thus overall construction, of your work.
A significant amount of musical ideas, not encoded in the written or spoken language, will reside in your shorter-term memory as you write. Ideas on how a musical statement will relate to something you have yet to write, or even abstract notions that have yet to be turned into realized music. These can all dissipate where you to allow several days to go by without thinking of them.
to write a symphony, be willing to sacrifice a normal life
Thus it is that you must structure your life in a manner that gives you plenty of free time to silently contemplate, in a room void of destructive interruptions. And because it takes a good 10 to 15 years to really develop your own musical language and voice, coupled with the fact that, on average, the height of your cognitive powers will likely be in your mid-thirties, you must be willing to inflict a great degree of social damage to yourself, during your 20s and early 30s, the prime time that people are naturally seeking lifetime partners and creating children.
Further, because likely you will be needing to work to support yourself and your musical journeys, your music writing will basically be an unpaid side hustle. And when you are a new composer, it’s often one with plenty of failures, that can lead to emotional hardship.
Finally, the social isolation, alongside the gross divergence in social lifestyle, afford even more elements that can negatively affect your mental health. It is only those with an irrational, quasi religious devotion to their craft, that can withstand this hardship.
life gets easier after you’re an established composer
However, it’s not all bad.
After decades of writing music, I can sit down at my keyboard and writing desk, regardless of where it is placed – in a small apartment in a major city, or a large country home half an hour from civilization – and feel at home.
And once you’ve achieved a mature compositional technique, and have spent a decade or two, ingraining the compositional process into your brain, you can take months to a year off from writing, without it causing any detriment to your abilities.
Hence you can get your life back.
avoid alcohol and drugs during your development
Pro tip on how to write a symphony: I also recommend avoiding alcohol and drugs during the first 10 to 15 years of the compositional practice needed to write large scale orchestral works. Your cognitive abilities and abstract problem solving must be top-notch during these formidable years.
I personally stopped drinking in my early twenties, and didn’t restart until my late 30s, when I was finally satisfied with my compositional technique.
Conclusion
Thanks for checking out my article on how to write a symphony! It should be noted that though this article presents what must be done to write a symphony in a linear format, in practice it is not as step by step as such makes it out to be.
If you are interested in examining my symphonies, you can find them on my dedicated page for such. There you will find links to order a physical copies of the scores and parts, if you want to use them as study material, on how to write a symphony.
Otherwise check out my blog for more helpful articles.
Take care…