A friend messaged me yesterday in indignant consternation at the Christmas selection boxes he had just stumbled upon in his local supermarket.
It's ridiculous, isn't it? We haven't even marked Halloween, and yet Santa and his entourage are already eyeballing us from shiny selection box wrappers.
However, December will wear around fast enough, making this an apt time to remind aspiring composers that the Composition: Wales deadline (2 December) will be here before you can exchange your summer wear for winter wear, and your Halloween plastic vampire teeth for a Christmas fairy light halo.
Composition: Wales' intention is to enable composers connected to Wales, either through birth or education, to gain experience working with a live orchestra (as opposed to the tame one trapped within the confines of Sibelius software), and to gain wider exposure.
I wholeheartedly believe we should encourage the composers in our midst; music should never be allowed to become a stagnant art in which we worship blindly at the altars of old shaggy haired gentlemen (and too few ladies) long since departed.
However, I would like to humbly offer some advice from my seat in the National Orchestra of Wales to prospective applicants.
1. Be certain of what you are trying to achieve
This is a great opportunity to explore and develop your own compositional voice, and in the past successful entries have all had one thing in common - the composer knew what he/she wanted to convey to the listener.
If you know what you want, we will know what you want, and so, the audience will too.
2. Make sure the notes you have asked each instrument to play exist on, and are appropriate to, that instrument
This may seem obvious, but it is worth mentioning. It really annoys instrumentalists when a new score arrives in front of them, riddled with notes that either are non existent on their instrument, or completely impractical with regards to range.
Nothing ruins the flow of a rehearsal more (and therefore your allotted workshopping time) than having to check notes instead of getting to grips with the work.
Musicians love to be challenged, but there is a massive difference between pushing technical boundaries and writing something that is unachievable within the allotted workshop time.
It is allowed during a workshop to ask musicians if something is achievable; and you mark yourself out as listening and understanding if you can offer solutions or alternatives that remain true to your vision of your work.
3. Keep your performance notes brief
There is a difference between programme notes and performance directions. If your score requires explanatory notes, perhaps because of special notation, that's unquestionably okay.
However, musicians want the information they need conveyed to them clearly and concisely - lengthy, flowery descriptions of the desired effects are not as helpful as you might think.
So, check out how to submit your compositions online. It involves words that I have chosen to not understand since surviving my final year undergraduate music technology exam, but you can read it for yourself on the orchestra website.
Happy composing, and remember, the viola does not have an E string!
The deadline for submissions to Composition: Wales is 10am on Monday 2 December.
Composers eligible to submit a score are as follows:
- Post tertiary education composers born in Wales
- Post tertiary education composers currently living in Wales
- Composers studying composition at Post-Graduate level in Wales
- Composers born in Wales studying composition at Post-Graduate level outside Wales
For more information and guidelines visit the BBC NOW website.
