How Successful You Actually Are As A Composer? Or How Big Are Your Ambitions?

Since there is a large ammount of composers or wanna-be composers I am wondering how really you want to make a resounding impact as a composer throughout 21st Century.

I personally am considered as an established composer in my Slovenia. Maybe sounds bold, but I believe I might be in top 10 at the moment. Still, I am interested to have a bigger international success. I am lucky to enjoy some of it, especially with my chamber opus for wind instruments - my compositions such as Yearning for flute quartet, Trio for flute, clarinet and bassoon, The Bird Tango for piccolos and piano have had a solid reputation abroad.

In my country, I am experiencing a new commission boom - I'll be busy throught 2013. A new composition for choir, a new composition for wind quintet, three new short pieces for different winds with piano, a new composition for flute and cello...

Please don't consider me a loudmouth or over self-esteemed. :) I am just telling the facts about my current composing career. Still, most of compositions are actually written without getting paid, but that's mostly OK, as long as performers do not expect me to pay them for their performances of my music. :)

My ambitions for the future: to compose the largest number of symphonies in Slovenia. The record is, of course, a magic number of nine, created by Blaz Arnic. Still, I only have two and a half completed so far... :)

And my ambition is also to have as many fans of my music as it is actually possible, since I am not a young pop music upstart (like Justin Bieber) and I am actually an "invisible" composer of so much hated modern classical music...

Thanks for your replies, looking forward to read them! :shifty:

Please don't consider me a loudmouth or over self-esteemed. :) I am just telling the facts about my current composing career.

There were a lot of great moments in that post, but this was my favorite.

My personal goals are to write quality works and to care as little as possible about "records", "top ten lists" (lol), etc. Oh, and I strive to avoid self-designating myself as a "real-life professional composer" every time I open my mouth.

my ambition is to be bigger than beethoven

i know it makes me sound incredibly conceited, but believe me, it's not like that. beethoven was my first love. then he broke my heart by cheating on me with that hoe Antonie Bretano and i won't be satisfied until i've had my revenge and eclipsed his achievements forever. i also have the ambition of writing my name on the moon with a giant laser at some point, in between winning the nobel prize for music and writing a symphony that can cure cancer, but that's more of a personal goal than anything else

it's true that i've done some remarkable things already, of course—bards the world over sing songs in praise of me, Orpheus considered me his favourite student and one of my string quartets healed a leper—but i wouldn't dream of boasting; that's a fool's errand.

Well, we would have to enter in a large description of "successful" but since I live in a place nothing proper for this dedication, and I haven't had any premiere of what I've wrote, I think I can't be very close of that word "successful"...

my ambitions ? man to be truly honest, I must say I've changed my ambitions dramatically in the last few years, right now my "ambitions" is nothing but have a job, a house, a wife, and that's it, I can live really happy with those things, without those things, I could have a quite large/loud premiere and I wouldn't remove the deep sadness I carry in my soul, not a slightly bit.

I'll have a premiere in a few days, but is an arrangement, on Christmas songs.... not very exiting isn't it ?

now that if I am satisfied with what I write ? yes generally I am.

I've entered in the world of music very late in my life (about 4 years ago). By now, I'm a bit known mainly by the dance category of my city, as I've composed 3 soundtracks for stage work. Some people have already looked for me in order to have an original stage work for ballet or plays (and I earn money with it, isn't that awesome!!!??! hehehe). As a musician to the other musicians, well, I'm still in university. Some teachers recognize me as a very good composer, which will "grow up" and evolve into a more powerful form (well, it sounds weird now... Do they think I'm a pokemon?). My ambition is to be recognized as a composer, known at least by my own class (musicians), starting from my city. This first aim is getting nearer each day^^

lol... this is a weird thread.

I am not successful, yet. hahaha. I mean. I'm in school for composing. but, there are literally THOUSANDS of composers in America.. and... about 1 percent of them have even been HEARD of by regular people on a mass scale.

I'd say the average person may know 10-15 living classical composers. Maybe that is a stretch.

I'd say the average person may know 10-15 living classical composers. Maybe that is a stretch.

Too optimistic. I'd say the average person may know 10-15 dead classical composers and less than 2 living composers.

Actually, 76% of people worldwide know on average 6.32 composers.

These are facts.

-1 from all of your guesses. Philip Glass doesn't count.

HE DOES TOO.

Sorry, I can't resist:

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Philip Glass.

Hmm... I could even make a bet on which composers may an average person have most likely heard about at least once.

Dead, likely known: Mozart, Beethoven, J. S. Bach, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Chopin.

Dead, long-shot: Stravinsky, Schubert, Liszt, Brahms, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, Rachmaninov, Mahler, Händel.

Total: 16

Living, likely known: John Williams, Philip Glass.

Living, long-shot: Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, Penderecki.

Total: 5

I'd love to be totally underestimating the average person's knowledge, though.

Too optimistic. I'd say the average person may know 10-15 dead classical composers and less than 2 living composers.

too optimistic.

what the average person knows about classical music:

1. it involves violins and powdered wigs and is very aristocratic

2. some classical composers include beethoven, writer of "für elise"; mozart, writer of "eine kleine nachtmusik"; brahms, writer of the lullaby; handel, writer of the hallelujah chorus; bach, writer of an air about weird fetish underwear. all of these people lived between 300 and 600 years ago.

3. classical music stopped being written around 1900 when it was replaced by big bands and swing. the exception is movie music, all of which is written by john williams, danny elfman and hans zimmer

4. similar to classical music is opera, which is about fat women wearing viking helmets and plates on their breasts, and ballet, which is about thin women wearing leotards and puffy tutus. paradoxically, anyone who likes these things is probably gay

5. liking classical music is a clear sign of being a cat-stroking bond villain or possibly a nazi. normal people only listen to pop and r&b (if female) or rock and hip-hop (if male)

replace with geographically-appropriate substitutes where desired

Who the hanggliding gently caress is Philip Glass?

Fame is not necessary in my honest opinion.It oftentimes works as a distraction.I wonder how many of us have heard the name of Professor Higgs before the recent outburst in the media about the higgs boson which is still not confirmed to exist.I myself didn't.

The point is public almost totally depends on common media today to know about something.As per what media tells them most of the people only know that much.It destroys their will to self learn.Academic education also contribute to this fact.And it is certainly not in the profit book of media to publicize music composers.

Another fact that classical music didn't have a most extraordinary composer in the past few deacades who is on the level of Beethoven,Bach,Mozart,Chopin and handful of other composers.So even people who know about the famed classical composers they think that classical music is dead by now.Not all of them but some of them think in this way.Why listen to atonal music when you have mozart around?

So google tells me your first name is Črt. You Slovenians are weird, how can you respect the music of a man who doesn't have the decency of including a vowel in his name???

I am not sure, how many keyboards and fonts around the world can have "Č" used without showing some funny signs. :) Since I see there is no problem on this site, I will from now on use Č in my name. My name "Črt" is an old Slavic name for forest ghosts, unfortunatelly, evil. :D

Well, I don't make a living as a composer only, it's practicaly impossible in Slovenia, unless you are a "slaw" and do anything other people (who don't have a clue about composing) tell you to do. I have to take it as my favourite hobby. This means I am sitting too much. :D Fortunatelly, I love sports so at least I don't weight too much. :D

Fame is not necessary in my honest opinion.It oftentimes works as a distraction.I wonder how many of us have heard the name of Professor Higgs before the recent outburst in the media about the higgs boson which is still not confirmed to exist.I myself didn't.

The point is public almost totally depends on common media today to know about something.As per what media tells them most of the people only know that much.It destroys their will to self learn.Academic education also contribute to this fact.And it is certainly not in the profit book of media to publicize music composers.

Another fact that classical music didn't have a most extraordinary composer in the past few deacades who is on the level of Beethoven,Bach,Mozart,Chopin and handful of other composers.So even people who know about the famed classical composers they think that classical music is dead by now.Not all of them but some of them think in this way.Why listen to atonal music when you have mozart around?

Funny, they'd never say: Why listen to Justin Bieber when you have Beatles around?

For me, fame it's not necessary, neither I pursue this. My ambitions are most linked to my own capacity than anything else. I think the only exception is the fact I wanna earn a lot of money to do and have lot of things that are really expensive, as sport cars, habanos, premium wines, Hans Zimmer' studio... hahaha.

Now, serious, I do wanna earn a respectable money with this - not needing to work as anything else, to focus 100% of my labor efforts in music - and enjoy a good life. And do some trips around the world. I plan to speak fluently 8 or 9 languages until 2018 (the year I hope finish my doctorate); currently I have only proficiency in 2, and understand more 2, but I'm slowly forgetting these because I'm not practicing them (to train again is a thing it's in my new year goals list). I'll start another 2 languages in 2013 (latest at early-2014). Finish my music books and thesis is a good goal too.

Also, I wanna do a study on sacred music, maybe a graduate - i'm currently thinking in get back to study latin at uni to approach this, or even do self-study.

For the money, I want someday to work on Hollywood - the harder part of my dream, I know. But who knows what future reserves?

lol, right. I'm sure it has nothing to do with Mozart being extraordinarily predictable to anyone with 6 months of theory training.

Yes, when you learn basic tonal harmony and write hundreds of lessons, you probably find classical, even romantic music way too predictable. That's why I enjoy modern music, because it brings surprises everywhere. I am such type of listener. Sometimes I do want to hear some "good old" music for my own pleasure - I rarely go to the concert due to the specific performer. But I prefer modern music which is "user-friendly" and does not feature extravagantly useless sounds.

lol, right. I'm sure it has nothing to do with Mozart being extraordinarily predictable to anyone with 6 months of theory training.

Is Bach predictable too?I'm asking out of curiosity since I don't have any musical training at all.

Well, I don't make a living as a composer only, it's practicaly impossible in Slovenia, unless you are a "slaw" and do anything other people (who don't have a clue about composing) tell you to do. I have to take it as my favourite hobby. This means I am sitting too much. :D Fortunatelly, I love sports so at least I don't weight too much. :D

Those damn law....always writing "Neoclassical" and "Impressionist" style copies. Always safe, never taking any risk.

Is Bach predictable too?I'm asking out of curiosity since I don't have any musical training at all.

Baroque music is less predictable since the polyphonic writing is more frequent and changes of harmony are much faster.