I recently rewrote an old score…without changing a note.
It’s not fair, but the way a piece looks on the page can have major impact on how it’s performed. I know that ensemble routinely struggle with page turns even after the piece is memorized. That’s how deeply the notation shapes our interpretation.
In this case, I found after five years of hearing the piece performed that the fast 3/4 feel was consistently dragged by 20bpm or more by choirs reading it. Something about the notation made them interpret the tempo differently than the marking. Even when a conductor was clearly showing the correct tempo, it drags.
I made a simple change that I hope will help: instead of being in 3/4, the piece is now in 3/8. I think the eighth notes will help convey the motion of the piece and get it to the right tempo. (I wanted it in 6/8 but there are some uneven phrases that would require metric modulation. That would make the notation more complicated and also affect the psychology of performance.)
I try to give my composition students lots of extra space between finishing writing the piece and delivery of the score and parts, because it’s essential time to discuss and explore not just the piece but how it’s written if we want to ensure that musicians interpret it the way they conceive it.