SSC

And electronic music? And so on? There's also experimental stuff that don't necessarily need to be done to see what would happen.

Nevermind that shooting for a performance is fine, but I'd not stress that too much. Look at Ives' Symphonies nobody wanted to play. I mean, he didn't stop writing despite the fact nobody would play his music.

Cage also comes to mind, there's a lot of stuff you just have to "Do it yourself". Know a cellist? Write for cello. Know a singer? Write for that singer. Keep pieces "performable" just by actually knowing those who can or want to perform it. If you don't know anyone to play something, it's still OK to write it.

In fact, I'd say that writing stuff down is the single most important thing a composer can do. Hearing it back by real performers is always super fine and shit, but chances are that double symphony for 4 organs and 100 people choir isn't going to get performed ever, but it shouldn't stop you from writing such thing.

So, I'd be careful saying that whatever isn't played isn't music. Sure, if it's on paper it's not actual SOUND, but it's like plans for a building, just because the building hasn't been built, doesn't mean it never will be. Nevermind that once you have the plans you can build a thousand of the buildings with them. Same for a score.

I'd also be careful stressing so much on performance, since I'd rather people write what they want to write. You never know how it's going to roll, and having pieces finished is always a strong point even if you can not get a performance immediately or later it still means repertoire, experience, and so on.

So yeah, I don't agree with what you said there at the end.