Interchanging Idioms

I get asked this a lot so I thought I should put my thoughts down for all to see There are a variety of articles out there which talk about commissioning works, many even have prices Randall Giles posts this page: A Brief Guide to Commissioning Music Johansen-Werner posts his thoughts: Some Thoughts on How to Commission Music Ken Davis adds his 2 cents: Commissioning New Music Abbie Betnis has her ideas: How to Commission a New Work from Abbie Betinis Even the American Composers Forum has suggestions: Commissioning by Individuals Pretty much all of those guides are considering major performers for major works. Yes, they talk about individual or solo works. But the moment you suggest a range from hundreds to thousands of dollars you're eliminating most of the musicians on the planet. A struggling performer can't afford to pay $4-500 for a new, untried work for potentially a one-off performance. So, here is my simple method for calculating what I might charge for a ne...

Musicians are taught in university to ask for money when playing a gig, but no one talks about how composers get paid Universities all over the US pay a fee to ASCAP and BMI once a year for the pieces their ensembles perform. They also send a list of programs verifying what music has been performed. ASCAP and BMI then go about funneling that money into the hands of composers, or at least into the hands of the people who own the rights to the music. This is done without the participation or awareness of the musicians in the program. Composers at these universities are taught to find musicians to play pieces. It is rare for instrumentalists to have a requirement to include new music in their recitals, so composers must negotiate for players without formal support. Most times, the instrumentalists are paid for their time out of the composer's pocket. Because there is no requirement to play new pieces, but there is a requirement to have your pieces played, an uneven dichotomy is est...