Crossovers - Composing Musicians.

courtesy of pigpogm

So we know that most composers don’t play (maybe in private they do) and most musicians don’t compose (maybe for the draw), Which is a puzzle in my mind.

In order to compose you have got to have some playing experience, you have to understand music and have to be versatile in the language you are writing - in short , you need to be a musician.

The other way round is true to - interpreting other peoples compisitions and bringing them to life would need a certain sensitivity and knowledge of music - So why wouldn’t a musician compose?

Sandow has a delightful post about Joan Towers 70th birthday concert in New York last week, in which, after her music was played for half the concert, She came onstage and announced that the rest of the concert would be compositions of the musicians on stage. It was apparently wonderful.(read the whole of Sandow’s post here)

I can imagine a whole different quality to the music, composed by someone who usually plays other peoples pieces. Something very fresh. (I don’t know why cucumbers and lettuce come to mind…)