056 - The Valentine Composition Project

It was 1997.

My piano teacher had just shown us a picture of Belle, Bonne, Sage, a rondeau about love written in the shape of a heart by 15th-century French composer, Baude Cordier.

This signaled the beginning of the annual studio-wide Valentine composition project.

Every year around this time, my piano teacher invited us to write our own piece of music, a "musical Valentine," as she called it. The idea was to not only write an original piece, but gift it to someone—maybe a grandparent, friend, or neighbor—and perform it for them.

We worked on these compositions for several weeks, usually starting right after Winter Break, making a little progress with each lesson so that we had a finished work to perform for someone by Valentine's Day.

This is a story about writing my first Valentine composition project, how I remember the creative process, and how I modified this project for my own studio all these years later.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

Belle, Bonne, Sage (Baude Cordier)

The Valentine Composition Project (free printable)

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew