Composition Matters

Molly’s day at the office yesterday resembled my undergraduate orchestration seminar last week, when I was able to bring various local musicians, some of them faculty lecturers who are also members of the San Diego Symphony, to do a reading session of the students’ orchestration assignments. This time-tested model always seems to bring out the very best in musician-composer communication.

When composers are students or young people just starting their careers, the flow of information in composer-musician interactions is natural, effortless. Similarly, when a master composer of great renown interacts with musicians, the flow of information falls into a more natural pattern. It seems that the feeling of being at cross-purposes emerges especially in cases where composers are at mid-career. It is not always clear how information should or can most beneficially flow in these situations. There can be misunderstandings resulting from incompatible expectations, even when both musician(s) and composer approach each other with the utmost respect. Who is expecting to give/receive guidance, on which points, in what balance?

Another parenthetical thought: Chris Theofanidis warms up to the idea of strictly social events with musicians and composers as scheduled components of residencies. Just as Robert has noted that not all composers take advantage of opportunities to interact with players, I have also noticed that there is a broad range of interest in such activities among musicians. Younger players are often more inclined to use their own social time to deepen their connections with colleagues. Percussionists, too – that special sub-group among orchestra musicians – are often eager to make these connections. Is this because the percussion repertoire is uniquely weighted towards the recent and the modern? Surely percussionists’ audition repertoire has a higher American and contemporary representation than the list to which “Sarah” (of NOI) refers.