Composers Who Don't GAF About Players

[the elephant]

I had a friend who was a DMA Composition student with a terrible attitude toward his music and the musicians who played it for him, usually for free.

He gave me this absolutely ridiculous unaccompanied piece for one of his doctoral recitals, and it was filled with "alternate techniques" fairly common to other families of instruments but that do not physically work with brass instruments. I pointed this out to him and he said, "Oh, it is a violin piece, but no one wanted to play it. I just kept copying it over into different ranges and clefs until you agreed to play it." I said, "So you're not concerned that your content is not at all idiomatic of the tuba and its sound or technical strengths?"

"No. Just play what I wrote. No one cares about the old. This is the new, which is all that counts to me."

[sdloveless]

I was reading an old article on Brian Ferneyhough and the New Complexity movement. He was talking about his 6th string quartet premiered in 2010: "If it gets played, that's fine, but that's not the goal."

The description from the article "His scores are hyper-dense, often pushing beyond the limits of human performance .... think multiple nested tuplets, irrational rhythms, extreme dynamics and articulation stacked on top of each other."

Personally I found it unlistenable - Maybe I am old fashioned but I actually like melody.... Once a composer or any artist puts their art ahead of the audience it all falls apart.

This guy gets it.

[gocsick]

One of the best parts of my job is being the University representative at Doctoral Exams... I usually learn something new and fun and get to meet colleagues in different departments and disciplines.

Recently on was on a DMA exam, where the young lady's dissertation involved creating a several hundred page annotated bibliography of music for solo flute and voice. One of her issues was labeling each piece with a difficulty level she aid that modern "extended techniques" basically ruined any scale... she specifically mentioned a piece in which the composer directed the flutist to light a cigarette and exhale smoke across the embouchure hole while simultaneously vocalizing. One of the committee members was Dr. Russel Mikkelson the Director of University Bands and Professor of Wind Conducting. He relayed a story about commissioning a piece for one of the University Ensembles and the composer replying that they were happy to take the commission but it might not be like the previous work... because they decided after much internal debate that they enjoyed listening to and writing tonal music. Unfortunately I don't recall who the composer was.. a name I didn't recognize the but the music faculty on the committee did.

[tubanh84]

On the other side of things -

I had the opportunity years ago to play a piece by David Maslanka, who took the time to travel to our neck of the woods, rehearse us for a couple days, and be at the concert. He was a very unassuming person. You'd never know how brilliant he was by looking at him. But his musical insight, nuance, and the performance he demanded out of us is in the top 3 of the musical experiences of my life. The music was brilliant, emotional, approachable by an audience on a first listen, and compelling. Probably one of the best, unsung composers of the last 50 years. But again, he was a quiet, unassuming, genius, not a self-aggrandizing hack, so he wasn't as well known as some others who have the latter skills but not the former qualities.

[MikeS]

I had a friend who was a DMA Composition student with a terrible attitude toward his music and the musicians who played it for him, usually for free.

When I was in college I had a friend who took come composition classes. Unlike your friend, he felt strongly that his efforts at the time were not worthy of public performance. He purposely wrote for ensembles that he thought would be impossible to stage. When he had to write an orchestral piece he wrote a concerto for three organs and orchestra. One piece of his that did get performed was a contrabassoon quartet. His professor borrowed a couple from not too distant pro orchestras (the university had two). I thought it was pretty good actually. It had a Daniel Pinkham kind of vibe. He ended up going to medical school and becoming a general surgeon, but he did keep his hand in music by doing some composing and arranging for local Detroit ad agencies.

[Mary Ann]

Legere bassoon reeds are astonishingly good (I have played on them and know pros who have been astonished when they tried them -- there is a difference but it is not huge, and you just buy the reed and stick it in the instrument.) As opposed to the legere oboe reeds which should not be on the market.

I've only played Bolero twice; once on violin and I remember the conductor (Juan Pablo Izquierdo at IU) but, ha, not the part. And as 2nd horn in the better community orchestra here, and I just so happy to not have to play the first part, which was a chop killer.

[bloke]

I eschew "classical".

Some music is more sophisticated.

Some music is written for identified-as-orchestral instruments.

Some music also (mis)-identified as "classical" is an organist doodling around because communion is taking too long.

I try to not use the word "classical" as a style/set-of-styles of music: I view it as "ugnunt".

Some pieces of music are "classics". Paul McCartney (I'd predict - once a certain amount of time has passed) wrote some of those...and without knowing how to write music.

[Billy M.]

That is crap produced by someone who wants to look like a composer but who lacks any sort of original inspiration or talent. He is a fraud, a poo-flinging monkey who shames his audience for calling out his "art" for being the poo flinging it is.

He needs to look into driving a truck or perhaps welding. He has no business writing music at all, ever. His twaddle is not an intellectual product, but more of an exercise in seeing how F-ed-up you can make a Finale file and still make it printable. He is a moron. He is not a musician. He is certainly not the brilliant gem he thinks he is.

Are we talking about John Mackey? It feels like we’re talking about John Mackey.

[the elephant]

I have no idea who that is. I am assuming he is a composer.

Are you compartmentalizing him into the "self-styled composer" box?

[bloke]

Hey'...

We were talking about plastic reeds...

I was trying to get everyone to eventually change the topic to "Joe's mouthpieces"...and you just put the thread back on its rails...

...dammit.

[Billy M.]

I have no idea who that is. I am assuming he is a composer.

Are you compartmentalizing him into the "self-styled composer" box?

His “music” sucks and he’s a prima donna. He’s popular lately with stuff in drum corps and his stuff is like vidya game moosic (better composers in that genre).

[bloke]

Hey...I LOVE video game music...

Those concerts pay really decent dough.

The music itself:

FABULOUS click tracks !!!

[York-aholic]

I play with a local university orchestra. Concert is getting semi close so conductor email to see when I could start coming to rehearsals. Saw one of the university trumpet players who warned me that the brass players are expected to play different pitches harmonicas in one piece. When the students gave a bit of push back, they were told that they needed to embrace modern music.

???

If I say I’ll play and you hand me some crazy tuba part, I’ll give it my best shot (thinking of student composer’s piece with strings of long sustained low Ds Db s, and Cs. Okay.

But to expect me to play some wild harmonica part among the crazy tuba part?

Seriously?

I’ve sort of procrastinated on emailing the conductor back. Guess I’d better do that soon. I wonder if AI can write me some sort of intelligible excuse to not play harmonica. Religious aversion? Is there such a thing as a harmonica allergy?

[Billy M.]

Hey...I LOVE video game music...

Those concerts pay really decent dough.

The music itself:

FABULOUS click tracks !!!

I love good video game music: Jack Wall, Yasunori Mitsuda… John Mackey can’t hold a candle to them; like I said, his music sucks

[the elephant]

I wonder if AI can write me some sort of intelligible excuse to not play harmonica. Religious aversion? Is there such a thing as a harmonica allergy?

I'm sorry, but I am harmonica-averse and cannot legally be within 100 yards of them due to a rather regrettable incident that occurred back in 1987.

Leave 'em wondering…

[donn]

Saw one of the university trumpet players who warned me that the brass players are expected to play different pitches harmonicas in one piece. When the students gave a bit of push back, they were told that they needed to embrace modern music.

Good for the students for pushing back.

I have scant experience with the music director type organization where players have no part at all in selecting what they'll be playing. If it's this way in the so called "real world", then the students are just learning about real life: you take what they give you. If it says you wear Santa Claus hats, put on red nose bulbs and periodically honk them, "moon" the audience, whatever, it's in the job description. Maybe there's some value in this. The part where they push back, though, valuable indeed.

[bloke]

Harmonicas are now "modern".

[York-aholic]

I wonder if AI can write me some sort of intelligible excuse to not play harmonica. Religious aversion? Is there such a thing as a harmonica allergy?

I'm sorry, but I am harmonica-averse and cannot legally be within 100 yards of them due to a rather regrettable incident that occurred back in 1987.

Leave 'em wondering…

I like it. May I use your words as my own please?

[windshieldbug]

If one is pro-harmonica, does that make you harmonica-verse?

If so, what about the chorus?

[the elephant]

I like it. May I use your words as my own please?