Abstract
It is not uncommon to find the collaborative process associated with innovation, whether by the participants themselves (Fitch 2007: 93) or the funding bodies supporting them (Haydn and Windsor 2007: 30-31). This paper investigates collaboration within a more traditional musical context and addresses two main questions in so doing: to what extent did composer and performer collaborate and can collaboration play a role within traditional compositional practice? By viewing the composer-performer dialogue during the creation of Capriccio (for solo piano) in the light of various modes of collaboration it will be shown that such a process did indeed take place but was confined to the conception and rehearsal of the piece: subsequent performances, it will be argued, should be regarded as further stages in the collaboration, thus interrogating the concept of the fixed work. The affect of the collaboration on the composer’s aesthetic and the performer’s interpretation will be shown to have been of value and difficult to achieve without such an approach. It will be argued that effective collaboration is of great benefit when composing for performers and/or audiences without specialist experience of contemporary music.