Question for composers: do you feel like performers on the whole fundamentally misunderstand how to play your music? Is/was there a way you adjusted your scores and/or interactions with performers to get them to realize the music closer to your conception?

Thanks for all the input, folks! It gave me a lot to think about. I went on a walk and thought about it, and here’s what I’m trying to articulate:

I’ll go to a rehearsal of my music, the group will play my piece, turn, and look for advice/feedback from me. (1/4)

(2/4) 99.999% of the time, they give me a technically proficient, accurate performance, but it’s too [nice way of putting it: subtle || mean way: anemic]. I ask for more intensity, I get slightly louder. If I ask for exaggeration, nothing happens.

(3/4) I don’t have a diplomatic way of telling them that playing this piece should physically exhaust them. I respect their interpretation, and bodily autonomy, but is they ask me what I want, that’s what I want! So what do I do (within normal notation) to get that result?

(4/4) The reason I have that ROCO piece pinned is because they really caught that “high effort/wheels might fall off” energy. It took them doing it twice in a row to do it!

Thoughts?