Musical Composition is the IQ/H artistic skill of composing music. The defaults are Musical Instrument-2, or Poetry-2 for composing songs. Success means that the music is pleasant to listen to, presumably improved by a greater margin of success. The sill includes the ability to read, write and transcribe music in your culture’s notation (if any). The prerequisites are quite unusual:
- Composing for a single instrument presumably requires that you have skill in that instrument, although the skill description doesn’t make that clear.
- Composing for a group of instruments without a conductor requires IQ skill in one of them, presumably preferably the one that plays the lead part, and IQ-2 in all the others. There’s a skill penalty of -1 per type of instrument above the first, but it’s not clear if voice(s) count as an instrument group for songs.
- For an orchestra or other group with a conductor, the prerequisite is IQ skill in Group Performance (Conducting). Here, there’s a skill penalty of -1 per type of instrument above the first, and a choir is counted as an instrument type.
Musical Composition appeared in
Compendium I for 3e.
Musical Instrument is the IQ/H artistic skill of playing an instrument. The only defaults are to other instrument skills, at variable penalties from -3 for similar ones to none at all for utterly different ones, such as (Drums) to (Harp). It includes the ability to read music in your culture’s notation, if any. That seems to make "no default" a bit harsh, since when faced with a completely unfamiliar instrument, you can at least attempt to operate it at the right time. A minimum default penalty of -3 also seems harsh, given how similar "different" instruments can be, so assuming there’s a -2 unfamiliarity penalty as part of that -3 would be plausible. Musical Instrument dates from GURPS 1e.
Both these skills are boosted by Musical Ability talent, and Connoisseur (Music) defaults to either at -3. They are more common on character sheets than templates in published GURPS books, simply because quite a few people learn music as a hobby or for entertainment, especially at TLs before music recording.
DF makes both skills important for Bards, and provides uses, treasure and henchmen for them.
Fantasy provides several templates for musicians, and
Fantasy-Tech has levitation via music.
Horror has a couple of templates that don’t seem to allow for Musical Instrument if they have Musical Composition, which seems odd.
Infinite Worlds has time viewing via the Music of the Spheres, and
Worlds of Horror has the Glass Armonica, part of the Mesmeric technology of Gothic-2.
Low-Tech and
LTC1 have lots on musical instruments, including a list of classes (missing Valved Horn (TL5) and Theremin (TL6)) and an excellent revised list of defaults.
Power-Ups 3, 6 and 7 have examples for one or both of these skills.
Social Engineering’s
Team Efforts rules are important for musical groups.
Thaumatology: Magical Styles suggests Musical Instrument for Air and Sound magicians, and
Urban Magics has Ratpiping.
Ultra-Tech has extraordinary instruments, some with enhanced emotional effects.
Musical Composition clearly incorporates the activity of “arranging” music, setting up the parts to be played by different instruments. This seems to be why it demands a wide range of Musical Instrument skills to write for a group or orchestra, but that isn’t the only way composition is done. A composer will start by creating music for a single instrument: piano is common, because of its wide range and flexibility. Arranging for multiple instruments is a separate step, which isn’t necessarily done by a single person. A small group of collaborative musicians will normally do the arrangement together, each providing the expertise for their own instrument and rolling against that skill; if one person was to do it, then they would plausibly need the prerequisite skills RAW demands, and a roll against Musical Composition. Arranging for an orchestra with a conductor would demand the Group Performance (Conducting) prerequisite and a roll against Musical Composition. While composers may do this themselves, it’s common for it to be done by a specialist in arranging, sometimes guided by the original composer. It’s also routine for orchestral music directors, who are experienced conductors, to tweak arrangements for the strengths of their players, or even the acoustics of a venue.
"Transcribing" music doesn’t just mean copying sheet music. It’s the ability to write down music as it is played, equivalent to taking dictation in writing. Quite a bit of historical music is known to us because composers who later became famous (and whose papers thereby survived) transcribed it, and the transcriptions survived when the original didn’t. However, like dictation, a transcription isn’t necessarily identical to the original, and it may well be arranged differently.
Something that might be useful for artistic skills in general would be a rules mechanic for taking penalties to the skill in exchange for better reactions on a success. Bill Stoddard recently
suggested using Performance as a complementary skill to Musical Instrument or Singing for "serious" performances, or vice-versa when showmanship is the main criterion.
I have no musical talent whatsoever, but I like using it as an element in games, more as a social art than as fantasy-musical mind control. What have you done with these skills?