Composition Matters

So, a funny thing happened when I, wondering what direction to go in with this next post, sat down to write–Angela Cordell, a French horn player with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, walks into my office trailing a line of composers behind her. Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

Not to turn this into a commercial, but they were all gathered for a pilot “Nuts and Bolts” workshop here at the American Music Center and needed to borrow some space to work in for an hour, so I welcomed them in and sat back to see what would happen. Some participants had scores in hand and asked for a try out of different aspects of their pieces, others just had more general questions about what the instrument could do and what preferences were when it came to part preparation. It might not sound like it, but it was exciting even just to eavesdrop on the conversation–it would not be melodramatic to say it was like watching a kid open a birthday gift. I took a stroll around the office and poked my head into some of the other musician-composer breakout sessions and stunningly (considering the hostility and frustration that’s been mentioned here) everyone looked liked they were having a really good time. I don’t mean to overkill the rah-rah factor, but having slogged through my share of orchestra rehearsals, the idea of fun and adventure when it comes to new orchestra music is not anywhere in my musician memory bank, even in college. Sad, perhaps, but also true. But here it was, what we’ve been talking about–composers and musicians sharing skills, both parties quite invested in the resulting music.

Part of what made Joan Tower’s Made in America project work so well is that it was the orchestras themselves that conceived it, as opposed to it being just a program they were just taking part in offered by some outside organization. They knew better than anyone what they needed, of course. With that in mind, what can groups such as the American Federation of Musicians, American Symphony Orchestra League, American Music Center, Meet The Composer, and American Composers Forum do to help musicians and composers get where it sounds like they want to be? Where do they just need to stay out of the way?