Page 36 - Composing Processes and Artistic Agency

The topography of composing work 25

meet the musicians early on in the composition process to find out the
ensemble’s specifics. Whenever she is unfamiliar with an ensemble, she looks
at “what else they play. What can they play? […] Which instruments do they
use?” Research into the ensemble forms the composer’s provisional assump-
tions and orientation. Christof Dienz also touches upon this necessary
familiarity with the performers: “When you know whom you’re writing for,
it’s twice as meaningful because then the performers can also show you their
sleights of hand. So then you can tailor-make your arrangements without
torturing them.”
The situation is different when composers seek contact with experienced
musicians who will not be performing the piece, in the hope of benefiting
from their knowledge of an instrument or a certain way of playing. We will
call this a knowledge-generating relationship. Composers sometimes use such
relationships and the musicians’ expertise to solve a specific issue. Thus,
Bernhard Gander gets in touch with musician friends to ask: “Can I come
round so you can show me what it sounds like? That’s the most important and
advisable thing for any composer.” Clemens Gadenstätter similarly reports
that he consults musicians when he has a composition idea for an instrument,
but is unsure about the sound or even whether he will like the sound. In some
cases, he gets hold of the instrument and tries it out himself, insofar as that is
possible. Javier Party, who played electric bass himself, describes how he
talked through ideas and musical possibilities with a double-bass player who
was going to premiere one of his compositions, in the hope of getting further
inspiration: “What’s possible, what isn’t possible, and so on. And what’s possible
for him. And I took notes and then used some of them, but not others. […]
The fingering is quite different on an electric bass guitar and a double bass.
And I knew that the things that I’d imagined on the electric bass wouldn’tbe
so easy to play on a double bass.” Musicians have a physical knowledge of
their instruments (see also Chapter 3), which marks them out as experts.
Composers deliberately target this expertise. Musicians, in other words, are
not simply performers or interpreters. They also act as creative partners who
depend on composers and who contribute their personal knowledge to the
composition process.
Composers also relate to other people, whom we generically call non-peers,
such as artists from other fields, partners who are not musicians themselves,
and other acquaintances who act as interlocutors and may provide stimuli for
having ideas. Katharina Klement received a work scholarship from the Austrian
state of Styria and travelled to Belgrade in the spring of 2014 to compose an
“acoustic city portrait”. Two locals – a visual artist and a graphic designer –
offered their help as people who knew their way around Belgrade. They
guided the composer through town, showing her different localities, where she
made recordings, and also various rooms, where she might be able to have her
composition performed. Beyond this, there was also an exchange on the
artistic level. Klement mentions a conversation with the visual artist about
“internal and external artistic strategies”, which connected with her own