Honestly, I'm more drawn to complexity. For composers, though, there are going to be some factors that demand consideration. My apologies in advance for a long post, but this has been an intense personal struggle of mine for the past several years.
Admit it or not, the first factor is probably going to be the target audience. Are you composing for an audience of university professors and students or for a commercial film release aimed at a specific demographic? One one side, you have an select "salon" audience of intellectuals who will judge you based on your ability to realize your artistic vision within their various subjective notions of "artistic integrity," whatever that means (usually just out-of-the-box, innovative craft-refinement not overtly purposed for mass appeal or for making a profit). I see nothing wrong with that, and I see nothing wrong with commercially-driven music the likes of John Williams are Danny Elfman--two extremes on the continuum, but nonetheless commercially desirable. Commercial tastes lean heavily towards the conventional and conservative. Pseudo-intellectualized musical art is all about the depth of the presentation--which may or may not be driven by musical complexity. If you're pursuing composition as a purely high-intellectual art rather than a commercial art, you have to satisfy the conditions that a) you get the concepts they're trying to beat into your brain, and b) you can take these ideas and synthesize a realizable work. Simplicity/Complexity boils down to a matter of taste, and university profs aren't going to demand you go one direction or another. They just want to know if you can handle the medium in which you chose to be creative.
The second factor is the musicians you decide to work with. Composition is a collaborative art and the performer(s) is(are) half the creative team. Some performers just plain suck. So...how do you work with unprofessional musicians that are credentialed really only on paper? Quite simply, you have to exploit their strengths. If each performer only knows how to play one note on his or her chosen instrument, then that's the only note you write for them. If your violinist has awful intonation that not even a mother could love, then it's a good idea to follow some kind of indeterminism that doesn't force the performer to work towards pitch accuracy. If you're working with a string quartet that normally doesn't play anything other than weddings, you're off your rocker if you write extreme high pitches and harmonics and expect your two violinists to double 5ths and octaves up there--and forget about your cellist playing the sound effects you want--I speak from experience here, btw. If the cellist's mom is the pianist, be kind (again, this actually happened to me: a pianist had a nervous breakdown trying to learn something I'd written). Always, ALL-ways, ALWAYS stay in constant contact with your performers, for they are inherently incompetent when it comes to new music. Leave NOTHING to the imagination, never leave them unsupervised to work on something. I go to great lengths to make realistic demos of my instrumental music, and I'm prepared to fake a fit of rage if I have to when performers fail to listen to my demos and observe EVERY SINGLE MARKING I put in the score and on their part. Oh, and I also make a point of getting small ensembles to read a score as well as their own part. I'll even highlight an individual part so a musician can hear exactly where they are in the ensemble. Despite my best efforts, I never can seem to win, and that has turned my attitude largely in the negative towards typical classical performers.
Now, I say TYPICAL classical performers... If you can work with symphony principles, university ensembles, or paid session players, you do get a different calibre of musician--especially if we're talking session players who you can fire just for fun. It's the whole "you-need-me-and-I-don't-have-to-follow-instructions" jerk that you find most often when you aren't a uni prof or have a large grant and you end up paying your people out of your own pocket. The reality is that a composer is only going to be as good as his musicians, and you'll end up making a ton of concessions based on how good your players are at doing certain things and their willingness to buy into what you're trying to accomplish.
The unfortunate effect this has on you as the composer is you develop a reputation for what you write--since you're apparently so good at it judging from the performances you get--that it severely curbs your ability to do the kinds of things you really want to do. So as an electro-acoustic composer, I've learned that the only person I can really depend on is myself. But that isn't a bad thing, either, since that puts me in total control over the outcome.
At the moment I'm going through one of my sound-design phases, which typically happens right before I start really cranking out some good work. Sorry for reposting the same-ol' material, but here it is for comparison.
#1--an example of what I ENJOY doing. It's rough and unrefined since I've been learning how to take advantage of a particular synthesizer I've grown fond of, but it's enough to get the idea across:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJRojtHiSfs[/youtube]
#2--what I typically have to settle for:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snp5xZSc8vQ[/youtube]
It's not the #2 isn't worthwhile or enjoyable, because it really is. But I want to get my music performed by other musicians and that often involves making compromises that I don't feel entirely comfortable having to do.
Now, what does that have to do with complexity? Well...you shouldn't have to feel limited in terms of what you compose. If you feel like doing something complex, do something complex. If you feel like keeping it simple, keep it simple. However, if you go the complexity route, you run the risk of having your music judged by performers as being recondite and getting poor-quality performances--and that's IF you actually get performances. If the performers don't enjoy what you're doing, neither is your audience. Much of the challenge in getting your music performed by other musicians is making sure that your music is even playable, and just what "playable" is will be defined according to the calibre of musicians you get to work with.
24 Mar 2012, 6:08 pm
Oh man, that was good, AngelRho! You just made my day!
