The classical music industry is facing more problems than ever, and the talk of new music is usually greeted by musicians' confused and reluctant responses rather than a sense of excitement. \nTraditionally, composers have tried to live on commissions and royalties of performances, said composition professor Don Freund. This is the composer's dream -- to be at liberty to write anything he or she wants and to be able to find some form of success with it. Other career composers aim to go into are the film industry and academia. \nThere are many other things a composer could do to survive. Freund said many composers get jobs composing for dance companies, commercials, recording studios, churches and even for computer games. There is a growing demand for music in almost all walks of life; the problem is most composers would rather write something more interesting than, for example, a snippet of music for a computer game.\n"In some level there's always something for you to do -- you just have to look for it," Freund said. "The only variable is how close it is to what you'd actually love to be doing."
Getting recognized \nTwo years ago, composition major and senior Alexandra du Bois was awarded the first Kronos: Under 30 commission. Jointly organized by the world-renowned Kronos Quartet, the Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College and the American Music Center, this contest is designed to recognize young composers and to mark the Kronos Quartet's 30th anniversary. \nAfter winning the contest, du Bois began receiving commissions from other musicians and has since had her music performed worldwide. But she said she has been very lucky.\n"There are a lot of disappointments in being a composer," she said. "Every (composer) I know, and myself included, enters between one and 100 competitions a year where we send out our scores of music, and everyone is constantly being rejected. I think, if anything, what young composers should know is that you have to almost love the rejection."\nFor a composer, the most important thing in achieving some kind of recognition is to get the music heard, said Robin Macheel, a master's student in composition. Winning competitions provides opportunities for performances of one's work, but one cannot depend on winning competitions to get recognized, she said.\n"To get people to appreciate your music, you have to somehow find a way of getting them exposed to it," Macheel said. "You just have to get your music heard, whatever that takes. Putting on a concert, assembling a thousand people together, begging everyone to come to it, or if it means making a whole bunch of CDs and distributing them to all your friends, quite frankly, that's what it takes."\nTo survive in the real world, a composer must have contacts and the devotion to get the music heard, Freund said. \n"The first thing you need is someone interested in playing your music," Freund said. "And then once you've got that performance, that one person, then you hope that that will spread to another ensemble or another person."
Writing successfully\nOne main problem is how to write music that might be successful, Macheel said. \n"People like to hear what's comfortable," Macheel said. "If you poll the average guy on the street and say, 'hey do you want to go to this new music concert?' chances are, they'll look at you really confusedly because first of all, they don't know what to expect."\nThe trends of today's listeners are so varied that it can be dangerous if someone takes the path of writing a style of music purely because some people like it. Macheel said he has an idea of how to interest people with his music. \n"Write for specific people," he said. "I have a trend now, to write concertos for a solo instrument and orchestra. There's something really exciting about performing a concerto -- when you see a soloist play 600 notes a minute and doing these impossible things, you can't help but be mesmerized by it."\nEssentially, one has to have creative ideas that will impact the listener, du Bois said. \n"I write music that affects me and hopefully affects other people," du Bois said. "I'm always working on ways to find outlets for my expression."
IU and composition students\nIU prepares composers for the real world not by giving classes on how to find jobs, Freund said.\n"You can't prepare someone for the world by giving them a class on it -- but what we do to prepare these composers is have them learn the skills they need," Freund said. "Whether they're going to be a movie composer or go into commissions or anything else, the best thing we can do is to make them very skilled in lots of different ways as composers Then they can use this resourcefulness to go any number of ways."\nFreund said the best way to go about as a composer is to keep going. \n"The more you do, the more people will hear of you, and your name will show up (more frequently) -- it's sort of like a spiral that keeps growing and growing," Freund said. "But the reverse is true -- you can't just write one great piece and expect people to jump on you."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Khai-Ern Ooi at ooik@indiana.edu.
