#or like 'ownership' of the music bc as it becomes part of the '3 cellos and a didgeridoo ensemble' rep it starts 'belonging' to the ensemble

[caroloftheshells]

some guy william robin is out there just eviscerating american comp culture in all the big musicology journals and now that i’ve started reading his stuff for one of my classes i’m like. hm. so that DID happen and it WASN’T just me

#last thing i read of his was about the whole thing where students (reading as.... those paying for the opportunity to do so) #will write these hyperspecific '3 cellos and a didgeridoo' sorts of pieces for some new music ensemble to read #which then will play them maybe once & not incorporate them into their rep; and also occasionally not even give composers due credit #or like 'ownership' of the music bc as it becomes part of the '3 cellos and a didgeridoo ensemble' rep it starts 'belonging' to the ensemble #which functions more as a brand or a band in its own right rather than merely a presenter of x type of music #so the upshot is you have all these people vying for absolutely ridiculous opportunities of oneshot performances #that don't actually go anywhere re publication compensation or future performances / recordings #and that may or may not actually reflect the music said person wants to write; is good at writing; OR will profit from writing #unless or until you have famous friends and the 'collaboration' aspect becomes more of a level playing field & a (semi)permanent arrangement #so it's the classic 'exposure' thing but then you don't even actually get exposure bc most of the time it won't get played again #which is i guess kinda specific to notated music as an ephemeral / temporally experienced art form that you can put effort into as a writer #but that ultimately rests on others' cooperation for its existence and can't be shared with an audience as-is #anyway. interesting article #called 'balance problems' #comp tag #carol overreacts to life #my own experience was that i kinda liked doing those things / being assigned to specific readings bc it really got me out of my comfort zone #but now i have sax & guitar duo music; sax & vibraphone duo music; flute-clarinet-trumpet-horn-piano-perc-cello-bass music; etc #kind of floating around that is not really 'marketable' in the same way as; say; a string quartet or a reed quintet or pierrot/pierrot+ #and most of it is also just kind of trashy and not my style. except the aforementioned fl-cl-tr-hn-pno-perc-vc-cb piece which i do love #and which i did end up rearranging for pierrot+ so it could actually get played lol #anyway. i'm so jealous the duke people in this article got to work with ben folds. *i'm* from nc and *i* want to meet ben folds. >:(