Composition Contests

It always seems composition contests are weighted against you. I may not be the best composer in the universe, but I know I'm not terrible. I recently entered a choral composition contest, and, as usual, did not win. The composers that did win were listed, so I found some of their music on YouTube and listened. It was typical choir music that is expected today: sweeping, monotonic, and totally not worth listening to again. Eric Whitacre would be proud.

The second thing, and more disturbing, is that I would say they won because they were young and fresh-faced, and are working in music. I do not work professionally in music, and I think this works against the musician. Samuel Barber, for example, called Charles Ives ''a hack who didn't know how to put a piece together." How nice.

Amateur composers are given short shrift, I guess.

Comments

Acoustic music

As I organize my acoustic music into volumes, I have again started writing a few short pieces, but I find it difficult to finish anything. It might be that I need a goal in order to do this; for example, I finished a set of vocal pieces for Colin Bell on his Fibonacci poetry. There was a goal with this set, certainly. The words of the poem gave me the ideas to create a specific pattern. However, I would like to write a piece for flute and piano, but I cannot make it work - at least, not yet. Writing electronic pieces I can do.

Cork

Here's a Cork on the Waves: https://paragate.bandcamp.com/track/cork-on-the-waves

Band Music

Writing band music for me is a blast; really, it is. My early band pieces, if I have to critique them, are that they are "ploddy"; i.e., eighth notes in repeating patterns of 4 or 5 or something, and loud fugal melodies over it. This piece, however, is a lot lighter. It is a fairly recent work, based on a melody from the Sacred Harp. Of course, it won't get performed; conductors or wind bands like music which showers all the parts with melodies and constant switching harmonies. They don't like it when the band has to function as chordal body. But who knows? I had several experiences where the band director was interested in looking at my piece, and afterwords, all I got was silence and the music returned to me.

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