A group was having trouble with a portion of an arrangement I had done, and called today for advice. After some back and forth, we settled on an approach that we thought would work. But in the process, I discovered that the biggest stumbling block was the block of text I had used in the score. With a clear image in my mind, I didn’t think carefully enough about the exact words I chose-and left them struggling to visualize (audialize?) what I wanted.
Happily this happens less often than it did when I started writing music. Unhappily, it will always happen, because translating music from brain to paper necessarily requires compromise.
The words and notation you choose matter; they must support and guide an ensemble that doesn’t know you. Otherwise, the music suffers.