Composers Forum is a daily web log that allows invited contemporary composers to share their thoughts and ideas on any topic that interests them--from the ethereal, like how new music gets created, music history, theory, performance, other composers, alive or dead, to the mundane, like getting works played and recorded and the joys of teaching. If you're a professional composer and would like to participate, send us an e-mail.
Record companies, artists and publicists are invited to submit CDs to be considered for review. Send to: Jerry Bowles, Editor, Sequenza 21, 340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019
I was reading about a contest this morning and I began once again to wonder how composers mange to participate in these contests. This particular contest wanted something for a particular ensemble in a particular duration that was written since January 1, 2004 that had not yet been premiered and yet had been well recorded acoustically.
I never get a good recording until the piece is at least premiered and often until years later. I never get any sort of recording until the piece is performed.
These contest instructions make me wonder how anyone can compete in these things, and yet composers win them, so presumably they have sent in these recordings. Do these composers teach at universities where the faculty members learn and record pieces for their colleagues? Do composers hire performers to learn and record pieces and make them promise not to perform them before the potential contest premiere takes place? How is this managed?
The Pulitzer is even more difficult since it requires a piece written in the past two years that has had its first performance or recording in the United States during the year. At least there is some logic to this since the Pulitzer has to do with news. But how often do concert music composers write a piece, have a premier, get a recording contract and have the actual recording issued that fast? One of my CDs took nine years from concept through fund raising to publication and included pieces that were almost 20 years old by the time the CD came out. Pieces by concert music composers that can even meet the Pulitzer guidelines are truly magical.
posted by Beth Anderson
10:37 AM
