Dear Alma, I’m a composer and I don’t know if my piece was played or not
OrchestrasDear Alma,
A close and trusted friend who is a professional musician invited me to write a short chamber piece for his ensemble. I agreed to write it for no fee if the concert was not subsidised. I wrote the piece and sent it in, it was received, but I have since heard nothing. The day of the concert came and went, with no information. My 2 attempts at communicating with my friend went unanswered. My best guess is that the concert never went ahead, my friend forgot to inform me, and that, it being the summer holidays, my friend is halfway up a mountain with no internet access. But I do feel let down. I am owed an explanation. What should I do?
Yours sincerely,
Frustrated Composer
Dear Frustrated Composer,
Frustration. A never-ending part of being a musician. Allowing it to overtake us can thwart our ambitions, but channeling it can help us achieve new levels of achievement.
Webster Dictionary:
Frustration –
a deep chronic sense or state of insecurity and dissatisfaction arising from unresolved problems or unfulfilled needs
What is your ultimate goal in this project? To have your piece performed? To foster a long-term musical collaboration? To have this moment lead to more collaborations? For me, I try to have every opportunity lead to three new opportunities. This opens my mind, gives me some perspective, and cools any hot emotions.
Having been on the opposite side of your predicament, I can offer some perspective. One member of an ensemble, in good faith, can begin a project without consensus from the group. Projects run by an external organization can be delayed, changed or cancelled. A group can disagree about the perform-ability of the score received.
From your query, I can assume that this group doesn’t have a manager or a director to contact, and that the group doesn’t have a website where you can check their concert schedule. This makes it more difficult to assertion the situation.
Frustrated Composer, you would like to keep your relationship with your friend, and yet would like to have your piece performed. I agree with your assumption that the piece was not performed. Keeping this in mind, don’t worry about the timeline. Let the summer take its course, and in the fall, contact your friend one more time, with a friendly subject like “catching up” or “hope you had a great summer”. Be friendly, and say how you enjoyed the process of writing the piece. Ask for any feedback on the score, without adding pressure of details of a performance. You want to reach out without giving pressure or guilt to your friend.
If he does write back, then you can follow up with offering to make any changes they might want, or meeting with them to workshop the piece. Things like this.
Clearly this project did not go as you planned, but that does not mean that it is dead in the water. Take a step back, cool your heels, and think of the future and what can come of the hard work you have put in.
Questions for Alma? Please put them in the comments section or send to DearAlmaQuery@gmail.com
Based on the information given, and assuming that the composer has complied with his/her professional obligations (deadline, compliance with instrumentation/length/&c., adequacy of score and parts), I would be inclined to the view that the composer has every right to seek other performers and performance opportunities for his/her work. The composer also has every right to continue to seek confirmation as to whether or not his/her work has been performed already, since première status is (rightly or wrongly) often a material consideration among performers and promoters deciding whether to programme a work.
Whilst the custom and practice for commissioning a new work may include provision for exclusivity in favour of the performer(s) party to the commission, this would be limited temporally and (after the world première) geographically. For example, the performer(s) may be accorded the exclusive right to present the world première by a stated deadline, and possibly an exclusive on the work for a few months in his/her home city or region. But if the world première fails to take place by the deadline, then the exclusivity provision lapses and the composer retains the full fee (assuming, of course, that the composer had provided a score and parts of satisfactory quality by the agreed deadline)… in other words, the onus is on the performer(s) to “use it or lose it”.
Having said that, it should be acknowledged that it is often a struggle for an individual performer to find an opportunity to place a new composition in a concert programme *and* find adequate time to practise and rehearse it, even if he/she *is* very keen on the work and plays in a regular ensemble with both the relevant instrumentation and an interest in new music. As a performer of new music myself, I have in my possession scores for several new works that I would like to perform, but for which I have yet to find a suitable opportunity… yet I would *never* expect a composer to “reserve” a work for me for an indefinite period of time.
The composer is being totally disrespected by his “close and trusted friend” and “Alma” suggests more of the same, because composers are supposed to be desperate. It’s a law of nature.
In general, in music life (on all levels everywhere in the West), demand for new works is very close to zero, while on the supply side the offerings have sky rocketed. Both tendencies have the same source. This has never been that bad in music history and the process began in the last century, in the wake of modernism, which broke down any standards because they were deemed unnecessary obstacles to freedom. While modernism and any movement following thereafter resulted in mushrooming the sheer number of people wanting to become a composer, because it has become so much easier, on the performing side this sea of unfathomable sheets has become impossible to navigate. Hence the general nonchalance with which ‘composers’ are treated, they no longer count as belonging to a respectable musical profession.
Of course this is a rough generalisation, and the new works that are indeed performed are mysterious occurances that deserve paranormal research.
I don’t see that there was any contract signed. It looks like to me that the composer is out of touch with the situation. He may have misunderstood the first conversation. If not, he would have some grounds to argue.
Yes it is clear that there is a misunderstanding. They should have made a clear communication at the start. It’s bad business on both of their parts.
Another option for this composer could be to retroactively name the piece ‘Hommage à John Cage’.
It looks like a very small project. No contract or money exchanged hands. No use in pushing it.
Even if the concert was for free, a performance contract should have been written. I would demand a return of the manuscript, or score and attempt to place it elsewhere for a fee.
The “close and trusted” friend does not respond to phone calls or sms or other messages? Odd – just like the subject matter!
I would gently check in with the friend and if nothing comes of it, keep the piece available to you to recycle for future projects.
I had a piece written for a friend never see the light of day because that friend then won a major competition and had performing obligations as a result. The planned recital project had to be scrapped due to schedule conflicts. But I then rearranged that piece for different personnel, maybe 2 years later, and potentially have a performing outlet in mind for it. I save everything and tell my students to do the same. You just never know when a piece will be useful again.