{"id":16956,"date":"2014-01-12T07:53:52","date_gmt":"2014-01-12T12:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=16956"},"modified":"2014-01-13T07:34:23","modified_gmt":"2014-01-13T12:34:23","slug":"question-is-a-composers-audience-the-performer-or-the-concertgoer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2014\/01\/12\/question-is-a-composers-audience-the-performer-or-the-concertgoer\/","title":{"rendered":"Question: Is a composer’s audience the performer or the concertgoer?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Matt<\/a>
(Matt Groening illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Tuesday, I’ll be speaking at one of the regular composers’ forums organised by University of Toronto composition profs Christos Hatzis and Norbert Palej for their students.<\/p>\n

I thought it would be interesting to discuss who they think their true audience is going to be when they have to make a living at writing music.<\/p>\n

Will it be performers — who commission new works — or concertgoers — the people who buy tickets to hear new music?<\/p>\n

And how do arts council granting guidelines and the quirks of moneyed patrons and foundations skew the equation?<\/p>\n

This is a very complex dynamic — one that’s different for each commission. As a character in a Stephen Sondheim musical sings, “Art isn’t easy.”<\/p>\n

I’d love to know how you see this balance in advance of my rendezvous. Please add your 2.75 cents to the discussion.<\/p>\n

Update: An Eloquent Answer<\/h1>\n

Canadian composer Andrew Staniland pointed me in the direction of a very recent post by American composer Dan Visconti in New Music Box<\/a> that elegantly tackles this thorny little question.<\/p>\n

My favourite paragraph:<\/p>\n

Alfred Hitchcock used to say that he wanted to play the audience of his films \u201clike a piano.\u201d He did not compose his great works in a vacuum, but rather with a careful and shrewd understanding of how each creative decision helped to shape a different experience for the viewer. To update this idea to a mantra that composers can call their own, it\u2019s worth remembering that the most worthy and challenging instrument of all to master is the inner experience of the listeners themselves: of all the tools in the composer\u2019s arsenal, the audience is the most important instrument.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You’ll find the whole essay here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John Terauds<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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