Composer vs. Performer

            Last semester the Wind Ensemble played a piece by John Mackey , called Xerxes. In this piece there was a bunch of percussion parts which used some traditional instruments for us, but also some interesting colours through placing a bell plate on a brake drum etc. The piece itself sounds awesome, however there was something that turned me off from the composer. That was the paragraphs which were directed to my part specifically about how I HAVE to use the SPECIFIC instruments he listed in the parts, and went on to say what I SHOULD NEVER use as a substitution. I normally wouldn't really mind this but he used a lot of caps lock words and was so specific it just sounded rude. Upon reading this I showed someone else and they told me a story where the composer was listening to a band play this piece, and they had used one of the things they were told NOT to use because they didn't own the instruments specified. He spent the first ten minutes freaking out at the percussion for not listening to his instructions, even though to a listener they probably wouldn't notice any change in the sounds.

         To me this feels inappropriate. Of course the composer has the right to want a certain sound and not another, however they should be a little bit flexible when the performers don't own the specific instruments requested. On the opposite spectrum I am playing a piece for Vibraphone called Drifts by Steve Kastuck. In this piece a lot of the notes are only the note heads, leaving the performer to play whatever rhythm they want. From another composers point of view this may seem as lazy, or not knowing what you want to hear in your piece. However what I enjoy about this piece from a performers point of view is the freedom I have to do whatever I want. It's also exciting to hear how other performers interpret the piece, which creates a lot of incentive to listen to the piece many times, cause it'll be a little different every time.

        As  a composer I do feel like I should be as specific as possible, but I also feel that you can't get too upset when people interpret your piece differently than you envision, and this doesn't mean that you failed as a composer. as a listener I find it exciting when piece lend themselves to interpretation, so they always sound a little different, and remain interesting every time you hear the piece.