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The Audience is the Most Important Instrument

By Dan Visconti on January 2, 2014

[Author’s note: I’ve been a regular contributor to NewMusicBox since 2008, and I’ve had an absolute blast writing or the site

and getting to !now the Box’s wonderul sta, readers, and co""enters on these #ages$ %ith so"e other writing #ro&ects and a

'() tal! on the hori*on, I’ll be contributing less re+uentl ro" now on to "a!e roo" or so"e new voices on these #ages$ 'his

is " last #ost on the site or a while$ 'han!s so "uch to everone or all their su##ort, co""ents, and e"ails over the #ast six

 ears-ou’ve reall hel#ed "e ind " own voice$ I’ll be bac! later in 20./ with the occasional #ost, as well as so"e longer

essas in the "eanti"e, an readers who’d li!e to connect should eel ree to get in touch via " website or 1aceboo!$ I loo!

 orward to reading this site as it continues to grow and evolve li!e an good #iece o "usic$ )34

Today I want to talk about a notion that is killing contemorary music! It"s an idea that is not con#ined to any one

location, social grou, or stylistic cam, and one that occasionally rears its head in both the halls o# academia and the

hiest co##ee shos! It"s by no means the dominant way o# thinking in the contemorary music world, but it is an

idea so ubi$uitous that it has become di##icult to escae% that the audience does not matter as much as &the music,'

and that considering the audience as an essential art o# music comosition is tantamount to andering!

The attitude that there is something unsa(ory and inartistic about considering the audience does not come #rom a bad

 lace) in #act, I"d agree with those who #eel this way on a great many oints! *# course it"s andering to try to guess

what eole want to hear rather than sharing the truth o# one"s own artistic (oice! + great art o# what eole want to

hear is something that engages them in a way that other music doesn"t! +udiences want artists to share art o#

themsel(es, something authentic rather than something ut on! a(or must be earned and not curried!

-erhas in art as de#ense o# these er#ectly (alid oints .and in reaction to the eager/to/lease tone o# so much

current music #rom all genres, somewhere along the way much o# the contemorary music community has

o(erstated the alternati(e to the oint where an urge to connect with audiences is seen as a sign o# weakness,

commercialiation, and &so#tness'as i# so#tness was always a bad thing, and in#le3ibility and lack o# willingness to

comromise always sure#ire signs o# nobility!

-lease note that this talk o# considering the audience is not some kind o# code saying that music should be consonant,

or leasing, or unchallenging, or that there"s any reason why an e3erimental aroach to music comosition can"t

also be temered by an awareness o# what e##ect comositional choices might ha(e on a listener) there"s great and

accessible music re#lected in e(ery style and aroach, and there"s no way o# thinking about music that can"t be

mar(elous and communicati(e and success#ul in its own right!

I recently worked with a student who ut on a er#ormance art iece in(ol(ing sel#/mummi#ication in duct/tae,

melting guitar strings with torch lighter, and long eriods o# stasis where the er#ormers aeared to take nas! +ll

along the way, I urged the student to go #or anything she could imagine, while all the while considering what e##ect

her decisions might ha(e on audience members% &ow many times does this e(ent need to haen to establish a

 attern5 6ight it be more shocking i# this last instance haened in a di##erent way5 7hat do you want eole to #eel

when this haens5 I# you want to lull them into a state where they sto aying attention #or a bit, about how long

might that take5 7hat might they e3ect to haen when the steladder is brought onto the stage5' It"s this same

consideration o# the e##ect o# musical decisions on the listener that makes Bach"s 5oldberg’s 3ariations, John

8age"s /’667, and John 9uther +dams"s Inu!suit  so e##ecti(e and a##ectingbecause in each case, the comoser

 ursued a desired e##ect in artnershi with .and not indeendently #rom a thought#ul in$uiry into the sychology o#

listening to sound un#old in time!

+l#red itchcock used to say that he wanted to lay the audience o# his #ilms &like a iano!' e did not comose his

great works in a (acuum, but rather with a care#ul and shrewd understanding o# how each creati(e decision heled to

shae a di##erent e3erience #or the (iewer! To udate this idea to a mantra that comosers can call their own, it"s

worth remembering that the most worthy and challenging instrument o# all to master is the inner e3erience o# the

listeners themsel(es% o# all the tools in the comoser"s arsenal, the audience is the most imortant instrument!

I recently attended a lecture in Italy by a well/resected comoser and sound artist who #lat out claimed% &I try not

the think about the audience and whether my music is satis#ying to listeners) i# the idea o# it is satis#ying, it does not

matter what the aural e3erience is on the listener!' I then attended a er#ormance o# this comoser"s newest work in

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which I was one o# se(en audience memberswhich the comoser in $uestion remarked was a sign o# the truly

 restigious nature o# the e(ent! 7e"(e been so beat down with Justin Bieber and commercial radio, and also with

handicked &#la(or/o#/the/month' comosers and art mo(ements, that many o# us ha(e come to e$uate music with a

 broad aealand the (ery desire to connect with audiencesas deser(ing o# only susicion and derision! The most

success#ul concert o# all, to some minds, might be the one that isn"t attended by anyone) imagine what an elite club

that would beso elite that it contained only emtiness!

+nd therein lies the arado3 o# contemorary music% music e3ists to be heard or not at all, yet it"s true that audiences

#or contemorary music are not as large as any o# us would like them to be! It won"t do to try and resol(e the arado3

 by claiming that we don"t care i# our music is heard, engaged with, and deely #elt, thus absol(ing oursel(es o# our

resonsibilities to others as well as oursel(es! Because that is what, most o# all, is shrinking audiences #or

contemorary music% not any articular musicians, stylistic aroaches, or rogramming, but rather a ernicious idea

that contemorary music can only succeed i# it bets against itsel#, and retends that losing was really winning all

along!

:o many brilliant musicians ha(e been #ighting against this attitude in their own way, with their own solutions!

8laire 8hase and the #antastic International 8ontemorary ;nsemble ha(e been making some o# the most

challenging and e3erimental music #un and accessible, and ha(e earned a sot on nearly e(ery critic"s &best o#' list

in the rocess! -roducer Beth 6orrison is busy rein(enting oera #or a new generation and in so doing has heled

countless young comosers #ind their (oices and assions #or the lyric stage! 9os +ngeles ensemble wild <- is

 er#orming both new and old music in inno(ati(e resentations that re/establish contemorary music as art o# acontinuum, making it e3citing #or audiences o# all ages to tune into classical music again! There"s no #ormula #or

success, as e(ery artist must #ind his or her own (oice and, along the way, new and ersonal ways o# establishing a

kind o# raort with listeners!

It"s a great era #or the music o# our time) one could not ask #or more di(ersity, talent, and disciline than the cro o#

musicians acti(e today at the beginning o# what is sure to be a wonder#ul year #or music! Don"t try to see yoursel# the

way others do) it"s no use! But at the same time, don"t sto trying to see others, to consider their e3eriences and to

#eel what they #eel with the #ullness o# your musical being! =eaching out to understand and consider others is the

way that we truly come to understand oursel(es) doing so does not make us weaker but stronger, and re$uires not

abandoning our sense o# sel#, but a kind o# inner con#idence that we can go beyond oursel(es without #ear o# losing

our identity! Don"t sto) go on and on and on until your own musical sel# becomes larger, kinder, more tolerant, and

more whole!

ay 2014 and thanks, as always, #or reading!

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Experimental Music and the Impossible “Audience”

On Art’s Market Responsibilities.

Ian -ower 

;arlier this month an article on new music by Dan Visconti aeared on >ew6usicBo3!com entitled &The +udience is the6ost Imortant Instrument!' The article urges new music ractitioners to more care#ully and attenti(ely consider their

audiences as an element o# their musical ractice! Visconti o##ers a number o# nebulous suggestions #or this, but I am le#t

con#used about ?ust o# whom or what this &audience' he re#ers to consists! e also boldly asserts that &many o# us ha(e

come to e$uate music with a broad aealand the (ery desire to connect with audiencesas deser(ing o# only susicion

and derision!' I say boldly because I do not belie(e this) I ha(e been in new music #or o(er 10 years and I cannot think o# a

single erson I ha(e met who #its that descrition! I will brie#ly resond, not to the article seci#ically, but to this idea o# the

audience in new music, and the lack o# serious thought about what this concet really means and how it might di##er #rom

similar concets in other #orms o# art and commerce!

*ne issue with characteriing the audience as a uni#orm entity is that so much o# it is us, comosers and er#ormers! :o

many leas #or accessibility #ail to account #or the #act that this sace, like other musical saces, is a community o#

musicians who are #ans and #ans who are musicians! 7hile it is imerati(e to kee our scene welcoming to all who wish toengage, the #urther a music regards its content as in the ser(ice o# ublic aro(al, the less it articiates in an e3erimental

tradition, recisely because it #ails to deri(e its content #rom the sontaneous acti(ity o# some mechanism interior to itsel#!

I am a comoser! 7hat would it mean to comose &with the audience in mind5'@1A

Visconti claims that &audiences #or contemorary music are not as large as any o# us would like them to be!' ow large is

this none3istent audience5 6any o# us make chamber music suited to a small room! I can ersonally say that, all access

 being e$ual, I would #ar re#er #our er#ormances o# my work in #ront o# 1 eole to one in #ront o# C0! I had a much better

e3erience with the music o# -ierluigi Billone in a dark rehearsal room with a doen others than I did crammed into the

 back o# Darmstadt"s *rangerie with a #ew hundred! The =ite o# :ring, on the other hand, seems to go better with a crowd!

6usic, e(en recorded music, is not searate #rom its aural situation! 7hen comosing chamber music, it is rarely ossible to

generally strategie #or a room, much less an audience! There can only be multile, di##use strategies #or this, based on aseci#ic music and a seci#ic comoser! In this conte3t, writing &with the audience in mind' is meaningless as a recet!

+d(ising a student to consider an e3erience o# a iece"s un#olding through time hardly reresents radical comosition

 edagogy, though Visconti treats this as some sort o# no(el ra3is o# the audience! +nticiating a disosition in one"s

audience, howe(er, will only reduce to sameness the di(erse reality% di##erent members o# e(en the smallest audiences will

think and react (ery di##erently to the same music! It is a well/treaded hilosohical a3iom that one cannot #aith#ully

reroduce e(en a single other erson"s e3erience in one"s own imagination! +ny attemt a comoser may make to recreate

the e3erience o# another in his thought mas the comoser"s e3erience onto a non/e3istent, imagined other that is always

already a re#lection o# the comoser! 7hether it be the imagining o# how one seci#ic erson will react .a dubious e3ercise,

the monkey on one"s back worrying what a teacher or mentor might think .who among us hasn"t, or the anticiation o# a

likely general disosition at a articular er#ormance, any such imagining will necessarily #all short o# an accurate

reresentation, imossible to e3traolate into either seci#ic or general comosition ractice! &The audience' is an

imossibilityimossible to describe or anticiate!

7hile Visconti does not thoroughly e3amine the idea o# accessibility, he does .as do many that broach this toic o##er the

ca(eat that &this talk o# considering the audience is not some kind o# code saying that music should be consonant, or

 leasing, or unchallenging @A' *# courseno one thinks this! 7hat, then, would it mean to make music in an attemt to

&connect' with as many eole as ossible, discounting these stereotyical criteria5 >o comoser would comlain about a

large number o# eole #inding meaning with her work, but what would it mean to attemt that deliberately5 Desite the

utter necessity o# solidarity and community, their e3licit ursuit through musical means leads ine(itably to homogeneity! I

do not mean that any iece that is well/liked necessarily aeals to a lowest common denominatorthere are countless

e3amles that re#ute this! I do mean that a comoser who cra#ts a iece intentionally to the e3ectation that it be well/liked

is in search o# homogeneity, o# linking eole together in a way that is reducti(e and destructi(e! It is imossible tostrategie #or a articular audience) it is anti/e3erimental #olly to strategie #or a general one! The comoser writing #or

&the audience' writes not #or a community, but a demograhic! *ne uses a demograhic, necessarily homogeneous, to ends

reducti(e at best and (iolent at worst! The discom#ort in the distinction between &the audience' and &demograhic' leads us

to the wholly econo"ic concerns in#orming this rhetoric!

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8ommercial art .on a more massi(e scale success#ully and o(ertly ractices demograhicsit needs them to sur(i(e! It

might at #irst be di##icult to imagine the sound o# a &new music' that could be commercially success#ul to the le(el o# a

Taylor :wi#t song, but the answer o# course is that is what it sounds like! 7e ha(e many e3amles o# what music sounds

like that comes out o# an industry that cares #ar more about oularity than anything immanent in the art% there is lenty o#

great stu## .like Taylor :wi#t songs, but there is nothing that sounds like new music .e3cet #or what accomanies De3ter

as he sneaks into another house! The imortant distinction between these musics is not the sound, though, it is the (alues

and the rocess! >on/commercial art relies on subsidy, based on the belie# that the way non/commercial artists work must

remain at least nominally searable #rom the market! :ubsidies take the #orm o#, #or e3amle, hilanthroy, go(ernment

assistance, and uni(ersity ositions #or students and ro#essors in order to allow #or artists to make their next #ro&ectsomething bu##ered #rom o(ert market concerns! :omeone at some oint considered un/ or less/mediated creati(ity an

imortant social (alue! This is why it so con#uses me that new music comosers should write &with the audience in mind!'

*ur (ery e3istence is redicated on the idea that we should not!

This is not an argument that any music that comes out o# our community is necessarily better than any commercial art! ull

disclosure, the music o# Taylor :wi#t does #ar more #or me than that o# -ierluigi Billone .and #or what it"s worth, I also do

not think that when she started writing songs, Taylor :wi#t was writing with her audience in mind! It is imortant to also

culti(ate unro#itable creati(ities that sread out (ia a mechanism that is not marketability! >one o# this, o# course, should

result in disdain #or social engagement with one"s actual, non/rhetorical audience! It is essential to connect with eole, to

discuss music oenly, to share oinions with those o# #ar di##erent backgrounds, to do more #or access! But we can #ul#ill

this resonsibility while o(ertly maintaining that ublic a##roval is not integral to the music, nor to the e3erience o# any

music! >ew music ractitioners must o# course meet ublic aro(al with humility and gratitude, but must not seek it! 7hatart thri(es on aro(al5 Dissent may be art"s greatest roduct!

The subsidiation o# our unro#itable music is e3tremely roblematic! >ew music, though o#ten reresentati(e o#

intellectual sheres that ha(e #ought against oression, recei(es $uite a disroortionately large share o# the subsidies o#

non/commercial arts because o# that oressi(e mode o# thought which ri(ileges traditions resembling ;uroean/

+merican colonial hegemony! This is the inherent contradiction% i# something is subsidied, does it not ha(e an ethical

resonsibility to be oular5 >ot gi(en the stated reasons o# non/market/based e3erimentation! But i# the subsidies are

worth honoring in their oosition to the colonial market, new music must #lout demograhic/ and ublicity/based ractice

to become a sace #or truly inclusi(e, indi(iduated art!

There are many #orms o# non/commercial music that yet thri(e socially, music that you cannot hear i# you are not a

 articiant! I# someone were to o(erhear a music like this, aro(al would be areciated and hardly needed! This is already resent in new musicthe relationshis and music/making between ractitioners are erhas the most #ul#illing arts o# it!

.+nd there might be theoretical headway in recasting &the audience' as #ully willing articiants! There is also something

inherently and socially #ul#illing about laying music #or onesel# at home! ;(en a music without any otential audience is

imbued with ancient ractice, and a reaching outside o# onesel# .e(en i# only as a ath back inside!

I# new music could no longer sur(i(e in the concert hall, or the uni(ersity, to where would it retreat5 I like to imagine a

comoser sitting at home laying her new music #or hersel#, her e3eriments borne out in a situation where the kind o#

e3osure and #eedback we take #or granted is #ar more di##icult to #ind! >o need to imagine, this occurs now! Is this music,

written not only without concern #or an audience, but without the ossibility o# an audience, any less #or it5

@1A erea#ter I will use &we' and &us' to re#er to new music ractitioners in general, esecially comosers!