Do Titles Matter?
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I had arrived an hour early for my flight and needed something to occupy my time. Casually strolling through the stores I eventually found myself staring at a bookrack. I scanned the authors' names and realized how out of touch I had gotten with the whole novel scene nowadays. One of the titles did catch my eye however - 'Chill Factor' by Sandra Brown. I scanned the back of the book and thought the description sounded like an interesting story. A few minutes later I was sitting in gate H8 reading the first chapter.
As I think back on this experience, I find it remarkable how big of a factor the book's title was in influencing my purchasing decision. I began to wonder, does the title of a piece of music matter too?
All through out history there are examples where this is not the case. There are no more bland titles than Symphony 40 or Sonata 20 or Piano Concert No 14, but that doesn't seem to affect the audience's reception toward the music of the Classical and Romantic masters. But what about when the composer is a fairly unknown commodity?
In my own experience, titles have helped. Recently, I was reviewing websites of performers in Iowa, so that I could market my music to them. I stumbled across the biography of Clarence Padilla, a clarinetist from Des Moines, who happened to be recording a CD called With the Wind. Luckily, I had just completed a solo clarinet work called Three Turns of the Wind. After telling him about my work, he agreed to take a look at it, and now, he is including it on his forthcoming CD. Though I can't replay that scene with different variables, I'm not so sure he would have looked at my work if it was called Clarinet Sonata 1.
On my website, I have a catalogue page that lists each work and allows the visitor to download a page from the score. I find it interesting that Swagger has been downloaded several more times than Six Preludes, though both are written for solo piano. Going back to the 'purchasing a book' analogy, I would want to look at the description of a book called Swagger, it intrigues me and I'd want to learn more. Six Preludes, eh, not so much.
You can extrapolate my experiences to national composing organizations (for example the National Association of Composers USA) that hold huge databases of their members' works searchable by instrument(s). As a performer, with limited time, when searching these databases, how would you decide which pieces to learn more about and which to ignore? Well, there's not much more you can go on besides the title.
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Take it from the perspective of a new music producer receiving scads of unsolicited CDs. Time is of the essence. How do you determine which CDs to listen to, or whether to listen to any at all? Well, you'd probably start with composers you'd heard of, but beyond that, you'd probably be influenced by the design of the CD, the CD's title, and the titles of the works on the CD.
But of course, there's more to this discussion than just the marketing angle. Personally, I believe titles are important as a window into the soul of the composition; to help open up the listener's mind to receive the work; and to create a theme for a story that the composer can expand upon in program notes or in a brief personal commentary before the work begins. I don't believe titles limit the listener's interpretation of what the work means... a person's mind will always drift to their own experiences when listening to music, regardless of the title, but the work's title and its story may help bring a few more listeners to a concert and set the framework for their listening experience while there.
And to get these pieces in front of audiences, what we need, of course, are performers. In the end, a performer will not choose to program a work because of its title - that decision will be based on other factors like playability and their connection to the music. A good title, however, might get them to open the score and take look at the first page - and to that end, we should use every tool at our disposal.
Oh...and since we're talking about titles, I'm just curious....why did you decide to read this particular blog entry? Did the title catch your interest?
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So I read it because I needed to take a break at work, and I wondered if you were talking about titles in the job scene or to what you were specifically referencing.
My own thought is that knowing you, I know the title has an encompassing feature of the work and I do listen to it for the quality or desciptor to be revealed. But if the title is a little more bland or "regular", I would listen more for my own experiential reaction to it. If the title is Prelude or Sonata and it is from a current composer, I would expect a very classical style. So then I would then be hearing how the performer interpreted that classical style to make it stand out. Classical is classical; it only becomes remarkable with good interpretation and musicality.
If I know I'm listening to a true 20th century piece, then I'm listening for reaction within myself, but also motifs and what they illicit. I also like rhythms that are detectable and catch my attention, i.e. some sense of rhythm, possibly alos motivic, whether it's a-rhythmic or not.
So if the title seems to be something unique, I do try to look for a connection from the music, but most of the time, it is my own personal reaction and experience with the music.
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My college jazz band director used to regularly buy charts because he liked the title. "The Cheese That Time Forgot", "Blues and the Abscessed Tooth" and "Blues 1, Band 0" (one of my personal favorites) come readily to mind. Some were good, some weren't. But I think it serves to illustrate your point.
As a listener, I do try to find a connection between the title and the piece.
As a composer, I absolutely hate coming up with titles. Sometimes it's simply a matter of convenience. In the handful of performances it's had, I've enjoyed hearing what associations people develop after hearing my wind ensemble piece, "May Music". The fact of the matter is that it's titled that because the premiere took place in May and I couldn't come up with anything better.
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