The Life of your pieces

I while ago in my composition studio class we discussed how long is life of a piece of music. We discussed the life of a piece of music; from when first final double bar line is placed to the first, second, and maybe final performances or publication. We also discussed what composers do to ensure that their pieces live on. So I ask you...

What is the average life of your pieces?

What steps do you take to ensure an read through, first, second, and/or third performance?

Do you even intend for your pieces read through by performers or heard by an audience or the mainly for your listening pleasure only?

Are you satisfied with the sample sounds you get from your computer or do you try for the real thing?

Or

Are your pieces written in such a way that they can only be heard within the confines of your computer?

Discuss: The Life of a Piece of Music.

NOTE: Im not asking you to flat out answer all the question listed. I want you to discuss your possess in keeping pieces alive and in the ears of your audience.

And if you want tell us how many pieces of your have been performed and if there are plans to have them performed again.

I don't follow what you're tying to ask. Elaborate.

I don't follow what you're tying to ask. Elaborate.

Do you intend for your piece of music to be performed and if so, what do you do to ensure this?

and

What do you do to make sure that it keeps being performed?

What is the average life of your pieces?

Forever, since I have scores and recordings and people DID hear them when they were performed so I guess they can never actually be forgotten. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed blahblah.

What steps do you take to ensure an read through, first, second, and/or third performance?

I find musicians, I conduct/run/whatever the rehearsals, and I get it performed.

Do you even intend for your pieces read through by performers or heard by an audience or the mainly for your listening pleasure only?

Mainly for my listening pleasure? I don't understand. I don't necessarily do all my work on the computer, and sample playback is obviously terrible. I do the majority of my working out of a piece by hand. I know how it's all supposed to sound in my head-er-ooski. Putting it into the computer is pretty much a formality since my handwriting is scraggy.

Are you satisfied with the sample sounds you get from your computer or do you try for the real thing?

That's a pretty sophomoric way to compose, letting the computer compose for you... I mean if you're writing music for the traditional acoustic instruments anyway. Obviously if you're writing for other things then yeah...get good samples.

Are your pieces written in such a way that they can only be heard within the confines of your computer?

You just asked the same question twice.

This was a very poorly worded post, you should be more concise with what you actually want to discuss. Why was your professor of all people asking such silly questions anyway?

Yeah, I thought the question was pretty straight-forward... it's not terribly difficult to answer either.

Step 1. Write and self-publish your work (i.e., edit and print the parts and score, try to have more than one copy on hand if you really intend to keep having the work programmed/performed).

Step 2. Show the music to performers, conductors, music directors, etc. It's a numbers game. Not everyone will be willing/able to program your work for performance. Get readings if possible. Make recordings whenever possible.

Step 3. Repeat this process for every piece you want performed. Even after you write a new piece, keep pushing for performances of other works you've written.

Step X: Become 'officially' published through a publisher. There's no real magic formula to keeping your pieces alive. It's just a matter of working hard, constantly producing, and understanding that it's a process that operates under a statistical probability. If you're disciplined enough to consistently produce and promote your music, at least some of your music will survive beyond your life... if that's your goal.

For me, my pieces tend to have maybe a 3-5 year life span. Currently, I write exclusively for my own purposes - always for a working ensemble, always for live performance. I don't write a lot, but I'm always trying to use newer material and I often find older pieces don't reflect my current state-of-musical-mind. As new stuff gets written, old stuff gets shelved.

I may refine/rework/re-arrange something - effectively updating and reviving it.

To ensure my current pieces "live" at all, I have to maintain momentum with working ensembles, and continue presenting my own music in performances.

I don't look at this question as pertaining to "publication" ...

What is the average life of your pieces?

Forever, since I have scores and recordings and people DID hear them when they were performed so I guess they can never actually be forgotten. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed blahblah.

What steps do you take to ensure an read through, first, second, and/or third performance?

I find musicians, I conduct/run/whatever the rehearsals, and I get it performed.

Do you even intend for your pieces read through by performers or heard by an audience or the mainly for your listening pleasure only?

Mainly for my listening pleasure? I don't understand. I don't necessarily do all my work on the computer, and sample playback is obviously terrible. I do the majority of my working out of a piece by hand. I know how it's all supposed to sound in my head-er-ooski. Putting it into the computer is pretty much a formality since my handwriting is scraggy.

Are you satisfied with the sample sounds you get from your computer or do you try for the real thing?

That's a pretty sophomoric way to compose, letting the computer compose for you... I mean if you're writing music for the traditional acoustic instruments anyway. Obviously if you're writing for other things then yeah...get good samples.

Are your pieces written in such a way that they can only be heard within the confines of your computer?

You just asked the same question twice.

This was a very poorly worded post, you should be more concise with what you actually want to discuss. Why was your professor of all people asking such silly questions anyway?

I didnt want you to just answer all the question blankly. I wanted you to discuss the life of your music.

and he didnt ask us these particular question, we discussed the life span of a piece of music.

My musical mind is constantly developing, so like Robin I often simply shelf my music not long after it's written. I write to become a better composer, better at putting notes together and working with forms, I've yet had great opportunity for performance and I don't actively seek it because I don't feel as a composer my music is ready yet. That said I always write with practical live performance in mind, rather than just computer ear candy with MIDI instruments. I'm happy with what my computer gives me because all I want is to be able to hear an outline of what I created rather than replicate live playing - that said I usually do the best I can to make my "recordings" sound as real as I can with what software I do have so that I can give listeners such as friends and potential conductors or fellow composers an idea of what it would sound like, to give the best impression I can under my constraints. The final product based on this outline, i.e. a performance, otherwise usually remains within my head. I'd say a lifespan of something like two years would be accurate. Something older than two years I would never bother having read or performed if neither has been done already. I've had three performances and a reading so far as a composer. The first was a commission from my band director when I was in 8th grade. I wrote a concert band piece for the high school. And also somewhere around that time I performed a few piano reductions of my Depictions of Persons for one of my middle school band concerts. I played Debussy at an art museum recital last year and snuck in one of my own works to compliment, and just this spring my youth orchestra read one of my orchestral compositions after pecking at the director for a while for the opportunity.

When I'm really ready as a composer to take on projects for live performance, it'll likely either be the conductor/director coming to me because they like my style, or my going to the director and offering them a chance for the ensemble to play something completely new that isn't in too modern of a style. I would also likely try and find ways my pieces would fit into a concert programme and introduce my compositions that way to see if a director/conductor would take to it.

What is the average life of your pieces? If this is how long it takes to write them, then 1 week-6 months

What steps do you take to ensure an read through, first, second, and/or third performance? I try not to use the Heckelphone tooooo often :P And I use more common instruments, even though lots of my pieces are HUGE

Do you even intend for your pieces read through by performers or heard by an audience or the mainly for your listening pleasure only? I would like for my pieces to get performed, of course, but I sometimes write some silly things for myself. :P

Are you satisfied with the sample sounds you get from your computer or do you try for the real thing? Well, Sibelius 6 has pretty good sounds. So, it's okay, but, the real thing, of course is always what you would rather hear!