On composers performing their own music...

Opinions? I thought of this when reading the tread http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/how-get-music-comissions-17194.html#post261964

I began to wonder, is there any difference between performing your own works as opposed to having other people play them for you? For instance, would it be better for me to play my own piano piece, or find a pianist? Play my own duet with a friend, or find two instrumentalists? I realise it might not make much difference (as far as attracting attention as a composer) but I'm wondering what people's opinions on this are. Feel free to discuss.

Problem, for me is this: In order for me to learn the pieces I write for piano, it would be a lost 2 months or so, since they are really challenging. So I strive not to lose such time.

I'm a pianist, I can play the piano, but simply not at concert level anymore, not unless I try hard. I can't compensate from my composing for such a feat, so I won't do it.

I've been invited to play to some festivals but I have, very kindly declined!

You can't be master at 2 different things, or even more. That's my take to it.

I'd agree with Nikolas... unless you were making a living as a performer and the pieces you were writing were expressly for that purpose, playing the pieces yourself may be somewhat counter-productive.

That said, however, if you can do it, do it! Another performer you don't have to pay. ;)

I'm on the other side - I write (for the time being) exclusively for my own ensembles. I write specifically so I will have something original and creative to play - I know what I want to perform, and I create and tailor the music to fit my own needs.

My teacher has co-founded a group with which they play works of each another. They also perform other works too, and they have their works performed by other ensembles too, but because they miss playing, they've found this a nice way to play new works.

Also, the good thing about having other people play your pieces is that, when you're composing a piece, because you have everything in your mind, a lot of things are taken from granted on your part and you don't think you should bother writing down. So, when you give your scores to other people, sometimes questions arise which regard the performance of the piece which you simply haven't thought.

Also, I do like to have other people perform my music because I like the contact and I like seeing their personalities and music selves take part and shape the performance (mainly because many of my scores require quite a bit of input from the performers).

But that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy performing my own scores - I absolutely love to do so, and I absolutely crave for performing opportunities. But it's good to have actual performers take a look at your scores, as they'll usually give you a different point of view on the piece - besides, the use of the scores is to communicate your ideas to other people, and although you might think your ideas communicate well (because you wrote the score and you know what you mean with it), it might not communicate as well as you think it would. If that makes sense.

So there.

I perform my work and rarely write any thing that is not within my abilities.

I much prefer writing for others. Right now I'd say my composing skills are a little behind my keyboard skills. But I do not play at a concert pianist/organist level. For me to do both extremely well is too difficult - not because it isn't possible but because of lack of time.

If you incorporate both succesfully as Robin is doing, then fantastic. Yet, I have read of many performers realizing that to develop to the fullest their compositional talents, the performance level either is allowed to decline somewhat or kept at a maintenance level.

I will say that composers do need to perform more and be competent at improvisation! As I study more Bach while fitting in a little improvisation lessons, I see how much that plays in Bach's music. I'd say that the study of improvisation greatly improves your performance and composition abilities. This is a little off topic but this is one method to hone both performance and compositional skills.

I'm kind of neutral on it... On the one hand, only the composer knows exactly what he's trying to do, but on the other I find it a bit meaningless to write if there can't be that separation of composer and performer.

But it depends on the context. I wouldn't think Machine Gun would be as powerful without Brotzmann involved, but I'd expect Zorn's Masada music to be able to be played without his involvement.

Also, I think you should be able to write for something that's out of your skills, like a wind quartet by a pianist.

I like it when others play my pieces, even if I could, because then I can sit in the audience and listen to it from the outside, with a less constricted perspective. If I'm too busy trying to play everything well I can't really listen to how it sounds as a whole anymore. I need that kind of distance.

That being said, I've frequently performed my own piano pieces, mostly because they were rather easy and it spared me having to bother a performer with it. The problem of performing your own pieces is however that you may develop a habit of not notating everything quite as clearly anymore, since it just serves as a reminder for yourself. This of course also is the case when you're developing a work together with the people who perform it. One of my last "pieces" is a 40 minute concert program for viola, guitar and live-electronics, which I created in collaboration with three musicians that were involved in the composition process right from the beginning - which had the result that the score is pretty much incomprehensible for anyone but ourselves because many special techniques and notations aren't explained there at all, so nobody but us could play it. (Well, if someone else wanted to play it, they'd need our whole live-electronics setup and everything too anyways.)

I'm so-so playing everything I play since I'm sort of late to the whole music thing and I never cared much for performing anything, so I mostly play to improvise and have fun.

With that said, obviously I can't/won't play anything I write or anyone else writes unless I wrote it through playing it or for some reason I need to play it. I don't know.

I'm not a performer and I really hate playing instruments trying to follow a score or limiting myself to anything except what's inspiring me to play the moment I'm playing. Kind of like composing really, to me. Also another reason why I shoot for the musicology/theory/composition/philosophy/etc side of music since I really don't give a scraggy about actually playing music for anyone but for myself (I'm too old to perform professionally and I don't have the resources, plus like I said I hate playing other people's pieces for some reason. Sort of like how I don't like when bands to covers of other bands' songs...)