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Introduction to Ogden's Music Theory and Composition

I received a Bachelors of Science Degree in Music Theory and Composition in May of 1981, from the State University of New Paltz in New York.  This music section will portray my universal concept on contemporary music composition.  :)

While learning so many different types of music theory and composition I came up with my own "Universal Theory of Composition" that entails some knowledge learned...a bit from here and a bit from there.  As you will see, I have developed a method of creating music that other aspiring music composers can use to create their own music compositions.

When I was in College I wrote a thesis about an opera by Richard Wagner titled "The Ring Cycle."  The later was a fifteen hour opera that was composed with the use of over five-hundred motifs.  These motifs he developed, transposed, mirror imaged, elongated, shortened, retrograded(played backwards), inverted(played where as if an interval in the original motif went up the new inverted one when down), and generally did what ever he wanted with the motifs within the confines of classical composition theory and form.  Every person, place and thing was represented with a musical value (a motif).  This was the first time I experienced true impressionisms in the medium of music.  From this I decided to give everything in life a musical value, the trees, the people, the rivers, the sky, the moon, rings upon fingers, biscuit to be eaten, the shoe on my foot, the key in the door, the smile upon your face, etc...  Unlike Wagner, I do not stay within the confines of classical music theory with my application of impressionalistic concepts within my compositions.  See, I also fell in love with a contemporary form of music composition called fusion.  The later is music composed with the fusion of different styles and theories(examples: classical with jazz, blues with jazz, rock-classical-alternative, etc...  I have become a true contemporary impressionist.