#twittercomposition – Help Write a Symphony
British composer Sam Watts is writing a symphony — with a lot of help. A savvy user of social media, he’s asked people to contribute to the new work by sending in a note through Twitter. As he explains in his blog A Composer’s Campfire,
It’s madness, I know, but I’m asking as many Twitter users as possible to tweet me with a musical note (A-G, naturals, sharps, and flats) and these notes will, in the order I receive them, be the melody of the composition. It will be a three or four-movement symphony (depending on how many notes I get).
Tweet me (@i_is_sam) with your choice of note (you can even specify note duration if you like) and include the hashtag #twittercomposition! Only one note per tweeter please! Then please tweet about it to all your followers to get them involved. That’s it. I’ll do the rest.
You can also just search for #twittercomposition to find out more.
In his most recent post, Watts talks about the development of the composition. It looks like it’s going to be a symphony, probably in three movements. The core melody will be 140 notes (Twitter limits messages to 140 characters).
#twittercomposition is a rare opportunity to see the creative process at work. Because the composition’s based on social media interaction, we can watch the work evolve from inception to completion.
Will the #TwitterComposition be the greatest symphony in the world? Perhaps not, but by the nature of its creation, it will very much be a symphony of the world
