It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you’re under the gun. I’ve always said that I prefer to work on projects where there’s a concrete deadline, and I’m sure most composers feel this way. But, there are deadlines, and there are deadlines. Because of the way concerts are scheduled, at least in the U.S., a typical timeline for an orchestral commission is roughly a year, maybe nine months or so. A film score project can be as little as a month or six weeks (or less? I’m not really sure.)
As it happens, my current project is not for an American orchestra, but a European one. Because concerts aren’t necessarily scheduled so far in advance there, the orchestra I’m working with had the flexibility to put together a very interesting program in very little time. I was contacted at the end of July about writing this 15-minute piece that will go up in the middle of November. At first it seemed like an untenably tight timeline, but this opportunity is special for both personal and professional reasons, and turning it down was simply out of the question.
Here’s what I’ve learned: tight deadline good; “comfortable” deadline bad.
Composers are notorious procrastinators, and I’m no exception. With a longer timeline I might have waited a few months before getting serious. I live a five minute walk from Golden Gate Park, so let’s face it, I’m at a disadvantage. I also have a very entertaining two-year-old. Plus, composing can be sheer torture, especially when starting a new piece, so why would I go down to my studio and put myself through that, when I could be at the playground? After all, the deadline is months away.
Not so in this case. For this project, knowing what the terms were, and having agreed to them, I had to make a point of becoming very (well, relatively) disciplined and well organized. I made a plan and set some milestones, making sure my daily schedule included a few hours on this piece. These things are key, even if you don’t stick to your plan, and even if many hours spent on the piece yield nothing. In this case I was all-business from the beginning, wasting very little time. I’m now about three weeks from my deadline, and I have this bizarre lack of anxiety about it, because the piece is just about where it should be at this stage. (A superstitious person would point out to me what a terrible idea this post is. I may have to delete it in about two weeks.)
My last project was a film score, the terms of which were basically such that I finish it when I finish it. It took about six months. (In my defense, the project started around the time my son was born.) The timeline for my earlier two commissions on this scale were on the order of nine months to a year. In both cases I took all the time I was given. Each piece hung over my head menacing me for the duration, and everything else was on hold. By accepting this project, short timeline and all, I will now have a new piece under my belt that wasn’t even in the pipeline a few months ago, and I won’t have to wait a year to hear it played by an orchestra. Then I can move on to the next thing.
There is one unknown: would I be able to pull this off if it weren’t for the existence of Sibelius (or Finale, or whatever)?
Categories:4 Responses to “You want it when?”
i totally understand this one. I set a loose goal over the summer “a piano suite of 5 or 6 pieces” as it stands i have four incomplete movements of a piano suite. Why? because im lazy and i need good deadlines. I wrote a solid, 18 page, 15 minute piece for piano and violin last may… it took about a month and a half, and since then i have not written anything longer or more substantial. Deadlines! i need them again!
Im sure all will go well with this piece. I would love to hear/see something of it. Dont be superstitious! im sure you’re too skilled a musician for that.
M., Thanks for the comment as always.
15 minutes in 6 weeks? Holy moly! Doesn’t sound to me like you’re lazy.
In addition to having a deadline, a good motivator is knowing that other people, besides just you, have something at stake. For example, if someone announces they’re playing your piano suite on a recital, I’ll bet you your lunch money that you’ll finish it in time.
man, if i could get anyone to play my music, i would be in pig heaven. Its not that bad (my music), i swear, i got loads of flattery from the grad student i was writing with last year- but no one i know has any interest in playing my music
…(insert self-pity here)
15 minutes… i just spent maybe an hour or two every other day… it adds up.
ok maybe not loads of flattery, some flattery. Sorry if i sound big-headed, and he certainly had some criticisms… but that was the point of the whole deal.
