Composer-pianist John McDonald responds to Byron Au Yong’s Ban The Piano Manifesto.

I’m outta here early this week, kids, so a safe and fabulous Christmakwanzahanukkah to you and yours. A few last tidbits to get you through the last days of 2005.

How’s this for a last minute gift idea: The complete abolition of transposition.

Should we really be satisfied with a narrow cast, even if that’s what we’ve had all along?

If nothing else, can digital technologies discourage composers from creating multi-movement compositions?

Win commissions and influence conductors with some clever word play, keep your drummer in line, and more…

All too often when new work ceases to be new, it resides in a cast-off limbo, no longer welcome at the table with the new and not yet embraced by the avatars of the tried and true.

Dan Visconti and Daniel Bernard Roumain let us into their studios, Jason Freeman gets into our iTunes, and more…

The Met is wrapping up the first week of Tobias Picker’s new opera, An American Tragedy. You may have heard about it. To be brief, the reviews in the papers and those overheard in the lobby have been decidedly mixed, rarely gushing or especially damning.

If you’re writing music without getting compensated, are you: (1) a victim; (2) an opportunist scab; (3) a smart gambler; or (4) all of the above?