Young composers: Stop them before it’s too late!

Is computer notation software still even debatable, or is it just a pet issue for the Luddite fringe?

No composer has the power to force a listener to approach his or her piece in a particular manner. On the other hand, how can a composer write for an audience with a potential infinitude of ways to listen?

Who are these hypothetical composers that choose the aesthetic math problem over the big sheet of newsprint on which to finger-paint?

How is that music can deliver us both heavenly and hellish experiences at the same time?

Music is a language in which one cannot lie; is it dishonest, then, to write strictly serial music?

The field of composition is rife with laurel-resters who trade on their earlier work while their standards decline; even composers whose younger successes were relatively modest conform to this model.

What sort of unexpected inferences might a performer make about your music based solely on its style of notation?

How do nonspecialists differentiate between composers and contemporary music?

Why is it so difficult to get people interested in new music? Is our own professional weltschmerz so overpowering that even we can’t really get that giddy about it anymore?