On performing your own piece and having others perform your piece - thoughts?

What are your thoughts around performing your own piece or having others perform your piece? Performing your piece can be a great way to share your interpretation and intentions of your own piece, and playing your own piece forces you to assess the playability of your piece, and make adjustments where necessary. You can prove your piece can be played by a human, removing accusations that it is just a computer-generated "impossible" piece. However, since different people have different abilities and interpretations, playing your piece might not necessarily help in making your piece more accessible (though it still can), especially when one performs and reinforce opinions of one's piece, as if a self-fulfilling prophecy, where your piece is the prophecy itself, which can be limiting - but again, this can be countered with an open mind.

Personally I always find it interesting how people can have so many different interpretations and ways of playing the exact same piece, with the exact same notes, markings and instructions, we all to some extend follow the score, took things out, or added things, according to our practical abilities and personal preferences, it reflects character - whether the persona or the person.

Same goes to one's piece, one cannot expect everyone to have the same interpretation as you, even if you are the composer. Yet, it can be quite personal because your piece is almost like a part of you and when others play it it is like engaging with you/ a part of you. It can be fulfilling when someone plays or improvise in an interesting and you thought " Oh, I never thought of that", or way of expressing love, like between Schuman and Clara, yet sometimes one may be offended as what might be disrespect as well.

Chopin liked it when Liszt played his Etudes with virtuosity but not when adding unnecessary ornaments to his nocturnes.

How y'all experience this?

Have you had experience of playing your piece in front of an audience (irl or online) - how was the reception like?

Have you had someone else play your piece? how did they play/interpreted it and how you feel about it?

Any other thoughts about these

Personally I realized I have really played/ have others play my piece? Maybe I should haha, and post them in my socials...

After joining YC I have quite a lot of experience playing my own pieces now, though only by recording with only myself at the piano without an audience. 

3 hours ago, Aw Ke Shen said:

Performing your piece can be a great way to share your interpretation and intentions of your own piece, and playing your own piece forces you to assess the playability of your piece, and make adjustments where necessary. You can prove your piece can be played by a human, removing accusations that it is just a computer-generated "impossible" piece.

Yeah this is exactly why I record my own piece with my own interpretation. I played my ( ) piano piece back in 2012 because it was to be submitted to the Exam Bureau and I found the trill of the Sibelius rendition disgusting, and the rubato was very unsatisfactory, so I recorded the piece myself. Even though it's full of slip, the recording is full of emotion and honesty, and I heard from my teacher that the piece's recording was played in Teacher's Seminar and those teachers were in awe of my playing which is full of slips haha.

Playing my own piano pieces gives me a chance to polish the details further because music play by hands is much different than Augensmusik or Öhresmusik. I can prove this piano music can really be played. Also, even though the piece once composer is not belong to me exclusively, the interpretation from the original composer is important to know.

I have also played through all Vince's @Thatguy v2.0 12 Piano Preludes. He did mention I brought in something he didn't think of before (at least not ruining his pieces haha). Actually when I receive reviews of my pieces I always discover something I have never thought of.

No one ever plays my pieces haha, tho @PCC once arrange my piano piece Moment Musical for Organ. I would be excited if anyone plays my pieces, especially my Piano Sonatas, haha!

Henry

It kind of depends for me on exactly what it is.

In many instances, I like hearing a performance come back from live players and the little nuances that make their interpretation unique.

However, I will say that it can be frustrating working with musicians with pop and jazz backgrounds. They're not so used to part-writing and often don't read sheet music. Their music is often much more chord + melody based and improvisational, so they often think that the pitches I've written are merely guidelines when they are in fact deliberately chosen because of how they will work vertically, as a unit, with other lines that occur at the same time, and they struggle to understand why them changing the melody the way they have messes up the piece.