Where Are We Going? And What Have We Done?

Abstract

This article discusses responses to the survey-score Where are we Going? and What have we Done?, which sets out to explore how Anglophone composers choose to ground the impacts of their compositional practice. The composers’ responses primarily centred around the psychosocial impacts of composition, and the article unpicks some of the implications of this focus. The article then details the effect the survey-score had on my own composing, before outlining the affordances of narrative approaches to the act of scoring, and their ability to shine a brighter light on the impacts of our practice, both retrospectively and also with regards to future performances.