Page 32 - Composing Processes and Artistic Agency

The topography of composing work 21

competences. In addition, characterising two people as peers presupposes that
they acknowledge each other as such. Composers depend on connections with
both peers and non-peers to be able to handle the organisational and artistic
challenges of the composition process, as we will discuss in the following
section.

1.2.1 The audience
That the audience is highly significant is undisputed, and is underlined by
Becker (1982/2008: 214), among others: “Though audiences are among the
most fleeting participants in art worlds, […] they probably contribute most to
the reconstitution of the work on a daily basis. Audiences select what will
occur as an art work by giving or withholding their participation in an event
or their attention to an object”. On the immaterial level, the audience con-
tributes decisively to artists’ public presence and reputation. At the same time,
viewers and listeners are their partners in an economic exchange.
Composers are aware of the audience’s importance and their consequent
dependence on it. All the composers we interviewed worked on their relation-
ships with the audience and with the musical public sphere. As one composer
said bluntly, “If I don’t give a shit how my work’s received out there, then I
don’t really need to have it performed, do I!” At the same time, however, they
articulated their relationship with the audience in very different ways. On the
one hand, they referred to the audience’s anticipated capacity to absorb –
“you mustn’t ask too much of the audience”– or just expressed the hope of
getting an emotional reaction: the piece “must have an impact”. Some, on the
other hand, do not ascribe very much relevance to the audience despite its
important place in the concert sector: “To be honest, I’m not really interested in
what the audience expects to hear.” Or: “Idon’t want to become subservient.”
Yet attitudes to the audience do not conform to an either-or principle, whereby
the audience is either served affirmatively or dismissed as irrelevant. Rather, it
is proof of the composers’ professionalism that they neither let their existing
dependence on the audience turn into frustration or rejection nor let it
become the defining aspect of the composition process.
As part of the creative process, composers regularly consider the performance
context and the impact of their music. Since emotions play an important role in
numerous ways, the work of composing always includes self-reflexive
moments: for instance, what effect does a tone in a certain context have on
me or the listeners? Bernhard Gander, who sees himself “as the audience’s
representative”, systematically puts himself in its stead during the review and
correction phase that comes towards the end of the composition process: “I
always imagine myself sitting in the audience when the piece is being played.
Is it interesting enough?” Similarly, Judit Varga does not conceive of the
audience as a homogenous crowd. Rather, “I always keep two listeners in
mind. One is a professional; the other has no clue about music. It’s important
to me that both get something out of it.” Such reflexive-imaginative processes