Getting your music performed

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I think most of us want to get our music performed... but of course we have to be noticed first.

This is why I like to write for an instrument I can play myself, especially the piano - because I am capable of getting it recorded.

I've had the luck of my music being recorded twice, during a composition course (by professional musicians! :unsure: ).

But if you want you compositions performed, it is better to compose for persons in your neighbourhood, school and not to forget: compose lots of educational music. People are craving for that. I think it's also a challenge to incorporate your style whilst keeping yourself within the technical abilities of a performer/ensemble. And it can encourage a wide audience to listen and play music they wouldn't even touch before.

Another way is to participate in composition contests (for example these International Composition Competitions ), most of them give a performance of the winning piece. Or entering the Composer Resource:

Originally posted by Pilharmonia Orchestra

Composer Resource is a revolutionary new way for composers of any age and any ability to develop their music writing skills by working on their ideas with the help of some of the best musicians in the world: members of the Philharmonia Orchestra.

The idea is not to choose the 'best' compositions, but to allow anyone to have an equal chance of being selected for the Composer Resource sessions. Participants for a session will be selected randomly from all entrants...

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...I think that young composers should not write educational music since they do not have more experiences of writing music. It's better to follow their instincts, It's the only way to find a style.

Every composer should have in mind while writing (except for commissions because it depends on hid nature) that the music is to be performed by trained professionals...[/b]

Yes, for a part I agree, but I think educational music also stands on it's own right. It doesn't mean that if you make some technical adjustments, you also need to ajust the musical side. To put it in the words of Wim Henderickx, a famous Belgian composer; "Je moet toegevingen doen voor de uitvoerders, maar niet voor het publiek" (= "You need to make compromises for the performers, not for the audience").

I think young composers like myself can make such music, as to develop their style in different formats of music. I agree it should not be done in early stages, especially for instruments which are not your own (I've never made such an attempt myself), unless you know a musician who plays that particular instrument.

But it's indeed correct to follow your instincts, and it's exactly that instinct that will

- at a certain point - make you want to compose educationally. Wether [sp?] it's tonal, atonal, modal...: if it's good music, it has a public.

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Originally posted by Samy+Aug 8 2005, 05:10 AM-->

So the moral of the above post. If you're neat, friendly and inviting you get friends(music performed)

So the moral of the above post.� If you're neat, friendly and inviting you get friends(music performed)

Of course, I do agree with that! It's true.

I know some of the young composers don't play many instruments but out of curiosity if you like your music the way it is and want i performed why not do it yourself because truthfully if your the one who composed it you of all people would know the best way to perform it

anyways thatz just my 2 cents :P

Beth

Haha if I could play the flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, etc. all at the same time I'd be in heaven!! :P

I've had different places played here and there, 3 in concert for school, 3 in practice for school, 1 in concert for church(not concert, but during Mass, with full congregation and all), and soon to be another in church(with me singing too!). This has only happened because I made it known that I'm a composer, and of course, people took notice. And they weren't all just small ensembles. You need confidence and a bit of persistance to get your works performed, as an amateur.

Where I'm going to go to school, the focus for composition majors is to have your works played. They hire graduate students to play your works, you can schedule recitals with fellow composers and you are treated like a performer. I can't wait!

As for writing for the performers, I've had to do that so much. My high school band played a Danny Elfman medley I wrote for our last concert in my senior year. I had to write for a high school band, not professionals. If you've ever heard the Simpsons Main titles, you know that there's a lot of hard stuff, especially for say the woodwinds. There were a bunch of fast runs I had to condense and change to make it more playable for the group. Also, my Two Psalms that my choir performed in church a month ago, was written for an amateur choir in mind. All the choir entrances started with everyone singing the tonic, and the harmonies never got complicated and rarely went 4-part. We usually have only one bass in the choir, so I wrote that part very easy, actually we ended up having no (male) basses for the premiere! We threw some low altos on it!

Anyway, sometimes you just have to write for someone in mind, yknow? Then, for other pieces you dont have a plan to be played by amateurs, you must sieze your creativity and write whatever music you want to write. I say go all out when writing pieces, there's no reason to hold yourself back. You can always go back and make a second, easier version of something if need be.

Here's a few thought...

Lately I've been inclined to try and build networks.. to network with other artists... The general idea is that there are certain virtues to collective action.. But also I've been thinking about cyber collaberations... where I could, as a for instance.. send a violin part off to a friend living in Vegas.. He's got some recording technology, I could email him an mp3 to use as a click track.. I could then have him send me a high rez recording on CDR, wich I could throw into my multi-track production enviroment.. and construct a performance that way..

There are pro's and cons to this kind of thing.. But I keep thinking about how we might be able to leverage the power of the internet for the purposed of the gurrilla..

Another things is.. Well I look at various Jazz artists.. Where the composer is the band leader.. and he's constantly specializing his stuff for the strengths and weakness of the artists he or she's working with..

Maybe another thing to do is to get together with musician friends.. where you peform stuff... so that you then have them as a resource...

I think what one should do is to try and explore the various aprouches one could use.. and in so doing... try and look beyond the well trotted world of the known.... and then evaluate those options in relationship to whatever you're creative vision might be... As I'm sure they probably all have pros and cons...

I have a book by Theodor Adorno lying in in my book case, that I haven't yet read.. But I have thought a bit about his subjects.. About the roll of power, and various systemic effects of how our society is organized.. on culture.. As a fan of Frank Zappa, I grew up listening to him talking about the problems he encountered in trying to realize his scores and classical ambitions.. which is what origonally brought my to explore electronic music... At anyrate.. the problems of getting our scores performed.. the amount of rehersal it might take for more challenging parts.. The lack of demand for new music.. all these forces that conspire against us and against inovation.. It's a sad thing if you have dreams of complicated musical structres that are difficult, or even impossible, to be realized given your situation.. and because of this how many great dreams were never borned.. or perhaps never even dreamed...

I'm reminded of the story of Charles Ives... Who wasn't able to get his major workes performed till late in his life when fashion finally turned in his favor...

Well.. I don't know if that's helpfull for anyone.. Hope it might be..

"Haha if I could play the flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, etc. all at the same time I'd be in heaven!!"

This is where the skill of telling people (verbally) how to play your music comes in handy. This skill, in my humble opinion, is much much harder to acquire than the skill of composing.

Unfortunately, one of the things that gets attention as a composer is writing a lot of music. If you write little or infrequently, then it's hard to get an orchestra to play something on relatively short notice after finishing a piece, and after it's sat for a few months the orchestra is no longer interested in playing it because it's no longer "new" music, even if it hasn't been played before. Also, one performance usually leads to another, but if the last performance of any your work was a year ago, then it becomes hard to answer the question "what else have you had performed lately that justifies our playing your newest piece?"

University ensembles often are not the answer, as they will always give priority to their own composition majors. I was told directly that my horn concerto could never be performed by the Occidental/Caltech orchestra, not even if a horn player entered the concerto competition with it and won, because the music department at Occidental College would see it as a huge slap in the face if the work of a Caltech biology major, with no formal musical education, were to be selected for performance over the work of one of their own composition majors.

Lately I've been focusing on chamber music for that reason: it actually stands a chance of being performed. But in this case, it's still difficult to get performances, because my composing usually just gets me dismissed as a mediocre violist trying to get attention.

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Thanks for the offer. Though, what would you view as "good stuff"?

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I've come into contact with a certain individual over the internet who was supposedly having his orchestra play a piece I wrote. It was hard getting word from him every now and then, and he had very little details to tell me about the actual performance of my piece, except that the sound guys screwed something up, so I was not able to have a recording.

Later I found out he was a complete fraud, who didn't have his own orchestra and he wasn't married and didn't live in France or whatever, and he is like 21 and lives with his parents. Sorry if I don't jump on you to get my works performed, I'm sure you'll understand. And plus, where I'm going to school, I'll get a lot of exposure, I'm sure.

I agree that the more you compose the more successful you will become. There have been many one-hit wonders, and I would not like to stop there.

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Your website maaaaad works. Heh, sorry for the overflow of sarcasm. The english site is down or not there or whatever. I speak little French. I could ramble off a couple of songs for you, however. I'll be taking it in college, however, just because my voice suits a lot of french art songs, and my diction sucks!

Fraud? Hrm, I'm not getting what you meant!

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Why don't you just study music!?

That is the solution

And a very poor solution, at that. I prefer to let my work speak for itself.

Besides, as I have said many times, I am far more interested in a career in medicine and medical research - you don't seriously think I'm in medical school for fun, do you? I only expect to finish 25-30 pieces in my lifetime (that's fewer than many YC members have already completed) but that means I have much higher expectations for each individual piece. Call it a different philosophy, if you will; but I think it's better to write only a few masterpieces than to write hundreds of mediocre pieces. That's why Alexander Borodin is well-known today and Alan Hovhaness (apparently the most prolific composer in history) isn't.

hi!

I must ask don't you believe that by writing so many medicore pieces experiance is gained and you will be able to make far more brilliant masterpieces because you will have learned from all the ones you had past written

ciao

Beth :happy:

Medical students don't have a whole lot of free time, so every minute of composition work has to count. That's why.