www.martiandances.com Artistic Statement Matthew C. Saunders

Music is nothing without people. It is created by people, performed by people, perceived by people and hopefully argued about by people, loved or hated by people and in the end treasured and preserved by people. Even in this age of technological wonders, there can be no music without people.

For the composer, whether the score is a manifestation of an idea that was somehow eternally present, or whether the score is that which remains once the extra is removed, a piece of music is not complete until human hands have somehow brought it to life and human ears have heard it and human minds have wrestled with it. It is impossible, then, to conceive a work without imagining its performance, and each work should be designed with a specific performer in mind, perhaps for a specific occasion, in a specific location. If the performer and occasion are matched to the composition, compositional technique and style become irrelevant.

The following considerations guide my compositional approach and working habits:

Music must be fundamentally coherent, and this coherence ought to be readily manifest to both the most inexperienced and the most learned listener.
Strict adherence to any one style or technique of composition is to be avoided; rather, an exploration of the potentials of various techniques will yield great rewards.
Electro-acoustic resources are best reserved for those timbres, dynamics, rhythms and techniques which are unplayable by traditional acoustic instruments.
It is crucial to create compositions which display both unity and variety in a clear and unambiguous fashion.
Each composer must struggle with the problem of dissonance, and discover a personal style that treats dissonance in accordance with the solution to this problem.
A composition is not complete until it is performed, therefore, a composer should write music that is performable, with specific performers in mind. The more familiar the performer is to the composer, the more potential for successful performance. A composition that works for one performer may work for others.
Serial techniques are not without relevance in all situations.