Atta boy Pedro.

From a friend of mine:
 
Some simple rules for functional harmony,

1. Never let monks decide what musical rules should be.
2. If you ever forget blame the monks and refer to rule number 1.
3. In Ionian I IV V are solid, ii and vi are deceptive, iii and iiv dim are out of the question.
4. In Aeolian i iv v VII are good, VI is deceptive, iidim is a change of pace and iii is just weak.
5. Remember monks made the rules, this is what we get when we refuse men sex.
6. Ionian, Lydian and Mixolydian are happy keys.
7. Dorian, Phrygian and Aeolian are sad keys.
8. Locrian is for wacko's.
9. Five to one is a strong cadence, four to one is the Amen cadence, five to six is deceptive.
10. RULES ARE RULES unless, you can explain why you did something against the rules. then like Bach, Bethoven, and all the greats it's genius.

craigb
From a friend of mine:
Some simple rules for functional harmony:
...

I wanted to get into that, since the history of western music, is intrinsically tied to the christian religion and its rise through out Europe and they dominated and selected the things they liked and did not like. Like literature and art, a lot of folks were hidden and done away with because of the religion.
 
It would make an impossible topic to go through, and only tell us how industrialized we have become for the last 1500 years, to the point that we have to find out from someone else that something is "good", because we have no centering point to define it otherwise! At that point, most people default to "ideas" and "concepts" in these boards and then do not realize how much of it all we really don't know! Or are subliminally doing/copying because that is the way "things are done".

bapu
Atta boy Pedro.

Thx ... I kinda know you say that in gest, but can only hope that it helps some folks out there. I do not expect anyone to think it is right, but it is something that I feel strongly about. And hopefully it makes sense.
 
I hate being incarcerated in the social mold!
 
Just like Asparapuss!
 
(sorry Becan!) 

Be emotional.

I've now given this some more thought and even though I now understand that creating music all comes from your own personal knowledge and experience, I still have some questions.  This ability to spontaneously (without explanation) translate your own personal knowledge and experience into tunes and such is something that some composers either don't have or don't have it very strong at all.  Despite the fact that these composers do experience emotion from music, they cannot seem to translate that into their own tunes and such and therefore, would require an explanation if they want to have this ability and improve this ability.  Of course, it won't actually give them this spontaneous-capable mental ability, but it will give them a taught version of this skill.
 
For composers who do not have this ability, they will find that when trying to channel their selves into their own tunes and such, that they won't be able to do it.  When they find that when coming up with a basis for a new created tune (an emotion or memory), they will find themselves asking "How do I channel that into my own tune?  Simply telling it to create a tune on its own does nothing, so what do I do?"
 
So in this case, without a teaching of this ability, these composers would forever be bound to creating random notes without emotion.  They can use their already existing knowledge about music theory and experimentation to try to achieve emotion, but without this mental ability I've just described, I don't think they would hardly get anywhere.  So you're saying that these people would fall into the category of "unfortunate composers" and that there is nothing that can be done?
 
Finally, as for me though, I do have this ability.  But I find many times when channeling myself into creating a certain tune that I want to express a certain feeling, instead it will be a completely different tune with a completely different feeling.  Therefore, in my honest opinion, a teaching of this music psychology I've been explaining would benefit those composers who either don't have this ability or don't have it very well, and it would also benefit me because my own ability just in terms of translating into a tune that I wish to express an exact feeling might not be very well.  So having a taught version of this skill would enable me to translate into the exact feeling that I want. 

I'm just going to go with 'no'.

Mozart Link
I've now given this some more thought and even though I now understand that creating music all comes from your own personal knowledge and experience, I still have some questions.  This ability to spontaneously (without explanation) translate your own personal knowledge and experience into tunes and such is something that some composers either don't have or don't have it very strong at all.  Despite the fact that these composers do experience emotion from music, they cannot seem to translate that into their own tunes and such and therefore, would require an explanation if they want to have this ability and improve this ability.  Of course, it won't actually give them this spontaneous-capable mental ability, but it will give them a taught version of this skill.
 
For composers who do not have this ability, they will find that when trying to channel their selves into their own tunes and such, that they won't be able to do it.  When they find that when coming up with a basis for a new created tune (an emotion or memory), they will find themselves asking "How do I channel that into my own tune?  Simply telling it to create a tune on its own does nothing, so what do I do?"
 
So in this case, without a teaching of this ability, these composers would forever be bound to creating random notes without emotion.  They can use their already existing knowledge about music theory and experimentation to try to achieve emotion, but without this mental ability I've just described, I don't think they would hardly get anywhere.  So you're saying that these people would fall into the category of "unfortunate composers" and that there is nothing that can be done?
 
Finally, as for me though, I do have this ability.  But I find many times when channeling myself into creating a certain tune that I want to express a certain feeling, instead it will be a completely different tune with a completely different feeling.  Therefore, in my honest opinion, a teaching of this music psychology I've been explaining would benefit those composers who either don't have this ability or don't have it very well, and it would also benefit me because my own ability just in terms of translating into a tune that I wish to express an exact feeling might not be very well.  So having a taught version of this skill would enable me to translate into the exact feeling that I want. 

Personally I think you're chasing a skill which doesn't exist. I don't think exact emotions and feelings can be mapped directly to music. You're asking too much of music itself. Now if you were writing a film score, however, you could probably go some way to portraying emotions musically. But only because the music is supplemental to images or dialog which expresses these emotions directly. For instance, a character in the movie might experience a moment of intense loss, and the music reflects this. But really, that same piece of music could probably embellish a scene which portrayed intense longing just as well. 
 
A good piece of music may take the listener on an emotional rollercoaster. But these are very vague, fuzzy emotional "clouds" which everyone experiences differently. Not only does the skill you're looking for not exist, but I think that if it could be "taught" then it would result in some pretty stale music. 

sharke
For instance, a character in the movie might experience a moment of intense loss, and the music reflects this. But really, that same piece of music could probably embellish a scene which portrayed intense longing just as well. 
...

 
Careful. Bernard Herrmann can blow this out of the water. You don't need to see the movies to love his music, and you can always check all the science fiction stuff he did on CD. Start with "Jason and the Argonauts".
 
Vangelis is in the same boat. So is Riuychi Sakamoto. 

 

This is my method. For most of the emotions I want to get across I use Am or Em. If I want un-naturally happy I use a key of D major. If I want aggressive I bash the keys harder, if I want angry, turn up the distortion. Moody, use lots of pads.

Usually these methods do not achieve the desired effect. ;)