I of my in-progress Concerto for Wind Ensemble*).

I happened to be visiting him at the time, and threatened to steal it if he insisted on trashing it.) My own approach shifts from piece to piece: I sometimes use pencil, paper, and a piano ( Alchemy in Silent Spaces, A Millions Suns at Midnight), but nearly all of my composing now happens in MOTU’s Digital Performer ( Ecstatic Waters, Axis Mundi, Radiant Joy, Bloom, Dusk, The Marbled Midnight Mile) or directly in Finale ( Chester Leaps In, ImPercynations, Suite Dreams, Stampede, First Light, and Mvt. (Aside: around 10 years ago, Eric had a sketch of the opening two minutes or so of Equus sequenced, but was considering throwing it out. Some, such as John, do most of their composing directly in a notation program such as Finale or Sibelius, while others, such as Eric Whitacre and Jonathan Newman, tend to write with old-fashioned pencil and paper and then enter it into the notation program, or go back and forth between the two. I would venture to say that most composers working today (at least those under the age of, say, 40-45) use a computer and MIDI playback at some stage in the creative process. Composing at the Computer: MIDI Mockup Madness Share TweetĪ recent exchange with fellow composer John Mackey on Facebook about saxophone samples (he uses the Vienna Symphonic Library series, and I’m currently using the built-in General MIDI samples, which possess the subtlety of a chainsaw) reminded me that I’ve long wanted to do a post comparing MIDI and live versions of a few of my pieces.

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