The best art is art you make for people.
That might be a commissioned composition for a specific ensemble. It might be the vocal jazz arrangement written with specific voices in mind. (In both cases, those works can be adapted to other people later.) It might be a painting for a specific space. (Think the Sistine Chapel…) It might be a bedtime story for your children.
In my opinion, if you make the best works you can for those moments, you are also crafting something that will live outside of that relationship. The greatest vocal arrangements were written for specific groups, but are widely performed. How many of the best children’s books began their lives as stories told to a child?
The act of directing your art someplace specific always yields more specific results. And specificity is one of the great determiners of success in art.
(In other news, I just wrote an arrangement for four specific voices – my family. More soon…)