Interesting or Odd Commissions or Commissions in General?

[monafam]

I come across statements about how a particular composition was commissioned by "...." and realized I don't really know much about that process.  How does it work?  Can anyone commission a piece? 

I was also wondering if there were any particularly interesting or strange commissions offered to a composer to produce a particular work. 

Thanks!

[karlhenning]

Any piece which some other person invites/requests a composer to write, is broadly considered a commission.  In the general view, commissions seems to imply payment to the composer;  and that sometimes happens, too 

[karlhenning]

One of my favorites:  Oscar Levant (friend and associate of Gershwin's) commissioning the Schoenberg Piano Concerto.

[Grazioso]

David Golightly's first symphony was "recorded and promoted in partnership with Middlesbrough Football Club and was dedicated to their chairman Mr Steve Gibson."

http://www.modranamusicpromotions.com/www.modranamusicpromotions.coms/info.php?p=2

[Maciek]

Nicolas Nabokov kept lobbying Stravinsky to accept a commission to write a set of spiritual arrangements for Leontyne Price.'

Interesting. Did the commission come directly from Price?

[monafam]

My ignorance is apparent ..   

I didn't even know (or realize if some part of me had heard the name in the past) who Leontyne Price was.   

In addition, who are Walsh and Craft?

[Maciek]

It came from her and/or her management. I have notes, or maybe copies of the letters Nabokov wrote. It may be in Walsh II or in the "Stravinsky" letters too. I do remember that NN was persistent, and I wondered/considered it likely that Craft was writing IS's responses, since Craft was screening IS's commissions by this time.
'

I wonder if Price ever commissioned anything from NN himself...?

Robert Craft was Stravinsky's assistant (that doesn't really say much about a subject for which there is much to be said). Stephen Walsh has an excellent two-volume biography of Stravinsky that is apt to be the best one until Craft dies.
'

To be frank, I didn't know who Walsh was either, so thanks for clarifying.

Thread duty: I have a vague recollection of an interview with Lutoslawski where he said something about getting commissions and looking into his drawer. I just can't remember whether he said that whenever someone had a commission for him he would first check his drawer - to see if he had anything that met the requirements (and then, possibly, accept the commission). Or was it that after accepting a commission he would check his drawer? Or did he say that he wasn't the type of composer who does that sort of thing?? Sorry for being so inconclusive but, whatever it was, it shows some of the possibilities inherent in the subject...

[Maciek]

I found my notes, which include a couple of letters that were published (although transcribed a little differently than I did) in Stravinsky Selected Correspondence, Vol II starting at p.  408. It was to be a commission  from NN for the 1964 Berlin Festival that Nabokov put together. (It's worth reading the letter from IS/[RC?] on 409 to get a sense of their feeling about festivals/festival goers.)
The festival included Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing Abraham and Isaac, whom IS wanted to record the work. (F-D ultimately dubbed in the vocal over the instrumental part recorded by Craft for Columbia, but it was rejected. Later Richard Frisch dubbed in the vocal to the recording that Columbia released. Dubbing wasn't such an unusual thing for these recordings.)  

Pertinent to the thread, in one letter, NN approaches IS on behalf of Rostropovich, who wanted to commission something from Stravinsky. Stravinsky replied that he was not very interested (p. 417).

Ah, pity...

[Guido]

Rostropovich requested cello concertos from Messiaen, Stravinsky, Walton and Barber, but didn't get any of those (some of the few he didn't!) The latter two had already written cello concertos of course, and were by that time quite old. Messiaen's last piece Concert a Quatre has a solo cello part written for Rostropovich and dedicated to him. Real shame about the Stravinsky - The Suite Italienne is a beautiful cello work, so at least we have that to be thankful for.

[Maciek]

Indeed.
Another Stravinsky item on the topic is Stravinsky's arrangement for two recorders of the Lullabye from Rake's Progress. As I remember, he wrote it in exchange for carpentry work from someone (George Harris and his wife) who played recorder.
'

I wonder how often composers agree on that sort of arrangement...

[Maciek]

Samuel Barter?'

"Will compose for carpentry"

(Well, I can imagine composers in all sorts of dire situations but this one is especially funny because Stravinsky obviously wasn't someone who couldn't get a commission for money, if he needed it; and even if he would have a problem with that - one tends to think that, in such a case, carpentry work wouldn't exactly be the vital priority... I assume it was just a friendly gesture, performed jokingly, but that doesn't make it less funny.)

[Superhorn]

  In April of next year, at the brand new  state of the art Dallas opera house, the Dallas opera will do the world premiere of the operatic version of Melville's Moby Dick  by composer Jake Heggie !    And Ben Heppner will sing the role of captain Ahab !  This sounds really interesting. Will it be a whale of an opera, or just a minnow ?

[karlhenning]

I don't care for the idea of an opera adaptation of Moby-Dick.  For one thing, you don't really get the sea and a ship breasting the waves, on a stage.  For another, a lot of the riches in Melville's novel, is the meandering narrative and non-narrative interjections.  An opera adaptation of the novel must perforce be a reduction, on a number of counts . . . not a version of Melville, but a musical allusion to Melville.  And, as I say, for me, that is scarcely adequate, let alone justice.

[DavidW]

I don't care for the idea of an opera adaptation of Moby-Dick.  For one thing, you don't really get the sea and a ship breasting the waves, on a stage.  For another, a lot of the riches in Melville's novel, is the meandering narrative and non-narrative interjections.  An opera adaptation of the novel must perforce be a reduction, on a number of counts . . . not a version of Melville, but a musical allusion to Melville.  And, as I say, for me, that is scarcely adequate, let alone justice.

I always find it odd when people think think that a long history of whaling thrown in from nowhere is a gem that makes the novel somehow all the better for it.  You see most writers do the research to help frame their novel, but don't regurgitate what they read.  Honestly I hate it.

[karlhenning]

I always find it odd when people think think that a long history of whaling thrown in from nowhere is a gem that makes the novel somehow all the better for it.  You see most writers do the research to help frame their novel, but don't regurgitate what they read.  Honestly I hate it.

I shouldn't recommend it generally as novel method, I grant you that.  Nor would I recommend the structure of Antony & Cleopatra as a template for drama.  In both cases, the auteur makes the unwieldy structure work.

An opera version would perforce have to make Moby-Dick tidy.  And then, already, you've got something that is obviously non-Moby-Dick.