The score is not the music.
Dear Performer or Director:
If you have already performed my music, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for being progressive enough to consider performing new music. Thank you for spending the time practicing music that’s unfamiliar, that no one else has yet interpreted. Please realize that having you share in creating the music in MY head or going beyond that and adding your own interpretation is beyond exciting. Thank you.
If you have not yet performed my music, please keep reading.
I sent you my score because I believe you are able to perform it well—that the piece fits yours or your group‘s capabilities. I also gave you the score because you have been able to communicate the magic in other music I’ve heard you perform. Please realize that I’m not just a faceless publisher that sends out tons of demos all the time. I spent time considering what you might want or need and effort and money getting a demo package for you to look at. I feel strange and vulnerable when I give you “my children” for you to accept or reject. In the back of my mind, I keep thinking that you should be coming to me, but I know that you don’t yet know my music or me well enough for that. One of the things that just drives me crazy is when I’ve sent you some music, I don’t hear back from you. When I don’t hear from you, the questions that run through my head are: Have you just not gotten around to reading through it? Do you not LIKE it? If you don’t like it, WHY don’t you like it? Do you like it but it’s too hard, too easy, doesn’t fit with the rest of your programming or just doesn’t excite you? Are you just hesitant to TELL me that you don’t like it or have a use for it? I know you’re busy, but these are the kinds of things I’d like to know. Even if you decide not to use the music I sent, your FEEDBACK is important. (No, even an unpleasant answer won’t make me slit my wrists.) If I know what you’re looking for, I might be able to choose or write something new that fits your needs exactly. And if you have a specific niche that needs filled, it would be wonderful to have a commission.
Also, if I just suggested a possible piece to you, and you seemed agreeable at the time but then I don’t hear back from you, I tend to think you were just being polite and that you weren’t REALLY interested.
Or… if you have already said you would do something with my music—a performance, a recording, a collaboration—and haven’t yet had the opportunity and motivation at the same time, isn’t it time to follow through? I would love to have the finished product.
I’m well aware that my success as a composer is totally dependent on what kind of performances my music gets. Those black dots on striped paper are just that. The score is not the music. No matter how exactly I’ve scored the music in my head, there is still more than just what’s on the paper. If your performance is JUST what I wrote down, a computer could do it equally as well and you, the performer would no longer be necessary. But realize that every time I give you a score, I’m taking a chance—my compositional abilities WILL be judged by your performance. Only famous composers are assumed to be good whether or not the performance was good. I wouldn’t have written it or shared it—with anyone—if I hadn’t thought there was “magic” in it. So please put the same (or more) thought, effort, and emotion into my piece that you would into something by Brahms or Bach.
Thank you for giving MY music a chance.
With love, from Evelyn