Collaboration between composer and performer: a case study on two pieces for solo guitar

This paper discusses composer and performer collaboration, specifically in cases whereby composers do not play the instrument for which they are composing. The article presents results of the collaboration between the author and the composer Samuel Peruzzolo Vieira during the composition of two pieces for solo guitar written in 2015. A phenomenological approach was chosen in order to demonstrate how both composer and performer experience a collaboration process. The collaboration was designed taking into account a previous study of the descriptions of 6 nonguitarist composers and 8 guitarists interviewed between December 2014 and August 2015. All stages of the collaboration were documented in videos, which functioned both as a record of the process and as a multimedia support that helped the composer during the composition. Results compare the composer’s ideas with the performer’s suggestions, showing that these were essential in order to make the pieces playable and also idiomatic.