During my professional career I have gathered some experience in working with musicians and ensembles and recently an unfortunate phenomenon has come to my attention: the fact that many young composers don't know how to deal/work with performers and that many performers have the same problem with composers.
It goes without saying that the main victim of a bad composer-performer relationship will be the music itself.
I remember reading once on a composition forum a post entitled "Of Cats and Dogs" referring, of course, to the relationship between composers and musicians.
This is a bad start.
And the results can be terrible, here are a few real life examples: an entire section of an orchestral work performed at twice the tempo the composer intended, all because "the audience will find it boring at the original tempo", glissandi being removed from string parts because "they are not important", an unmotivated ensemble playing music they don't really like just for the money.
The result: the performers don't engage in the music, the composers don't like the performance, and the audience gets bored to death and may even leave the concert hall.
Who is at fault here? The truth is very probably that both composer and performer share the blame.
Why? Here's what the composer may be thinking: "I'm a genius and my music is perfect.
The score I wrote is a set of precise instructions to playing my creation.
The performer is nothing more than a human version of a midi sequencer.
" Equally this is what the performer may be thinking: "I don't really understand this music, which means it must be badly written.
This piece is boring, I'll just play it through and collect my fee.
This composer is totally full of himself, I bet he can't even play a C major scale on a piano.
" Obviously this would be a worst case scenario, but a great deal of the conflict between composers and performers stems from attitudes like these, in short, a complete disregard for the other's musical importance.
So here's my advice to composers: musicians and ensembles are artists, not performing machines.
When they play a piece of music they don't only play what is written, they interpret, and this is a process that is just as creative, artistic and emotional as composition.
When you work with a performer you should first be grateful that he's actually willing to play your work: without a performer, a composer is nothing.
And secondly, you should strive to build a relationship of teamwork, in which both parties contribute an essential part to the whole.
Be prepared to take suggestions and to modify the score, after all you want your music to be as idiomatic as possible, don't you? It is absolutely essential to allow the musician or ensemble to be both emotionally and creatively engaged in your music.
Give him complete freedom in the interpretation of the work, and avoid interfering unless you think he is completely missing the point of a section, but also be prepared to listen to your composition with new ears and be amazed at all the things that you didn't know were possible with the notes you wrote.
Equally, this would be my advice to performers: composers are musicians just like you and devote a great deal of time and effort to writing the music you are going to perform.
If you don't like the music, approach the composer and ask him to explain what he was thinking.
It's important to make suggestions, as the composer is very likely to be unaware of all the possible technical difficulties of every single musical instrument known to man.
But keep your suggestions within the realm of performance.
At most say things like "I see you're trying to create such and such effect, perhaps it would be easier to try it this way", and never things like "this section doesn't seem to work, you should take out the last eight bars".
So to sum up, I think the relationship between composers and performers should be one of teamwork.
Each side should acknowledge the essential importance of the other, and grant each priority in their particular areas of expertise.
They should both be actively and creatively engaged in the music so that they are both happy with the final result.
This will guarantee an honest and meaningful performance which will in turn keep audiences interested during the performance and satisfied after the concert.
On a more practical note, I am convinced that composers and performers should have a few meetings while the composition is being written.
This is important because it opens up the possibility of input from the performer as the work progresses, and greater familiarity with the work even before the first rehearsal.