Several years ago, as I was prepping for one of my first interviews out of college, my dad shared some sage advice with me.  He said, "Most people make up their minds about you within the first thirty seconds of meeting you."  Dad felt that a starched collar, a nice suit, a confident smile, and firm handshake were nearly as important in obtaining a job as the actual interview.

Trusting his advice, I went out and purchased a new suit and tie a few days before the interview.  I remember that being a gutsy decision on my part, because at that time, $180 for a suit and tie was a healthy chunk-o-change.

Thankfully, the strategy worked. The interview went well and the next day I learned that I had landed a job in the business world. 

First impressions matter in an interview situation. They also matter when you are hiring a contractor for home repairs; looking at a potential daycare; or deciding whether to pursue a relationship. 

Do first impressions also matter in music?

A few weeks ago, I helped another composer review submissions for an upcoming festival of new music in Cedar Rapids.  We had an ambitious plan. We wanted to review 45 pieces of music and determine the program in under four hours.  The average duration of each work was roughly ten minutes.  If you do the math, you’ll find that it's impossible to review 450 minutes of music in 210 minutes, especially when you factor in the time to talk about each work.

After serving on this selection committee, I can say unequivocally, that first impressions do matter in music. 

At first, when reviewing the scores we were a little more forgiving. As the night wore on, however, we began to get a sense for the piece within the first 45 seconds.  If we were not interested at that point, we would look ahead in the score and see if a formal change caught our fancy.  If not, we moved on to the next piece. The total time for this process was probably less than 3 minutes.

 

If, on the other hand, we liked the opening of a work, we would spend more time with it - investigating each movement to some extent to ensure it still sparked our interest and that the piece was 'performable'.  On a few occasions, a piece would begin to unravel a few minutes in, but by and large, the majority of pieces with a strong opening remained that way through out.