My Aesthetic Goals in the Piano Quartet
My Piano Quartet was composed in the fall of 1993, as part of my work toward an M.M. degree in
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The Composer’s Craft
Compositional Process: The Melody of Life (Part 4)
Over the last three posts to this blog (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3), I have been describing the
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Compositional Process: The Melody of Life (Part 3)
My last two blog posts (Part 1 and Part 2 of this series) have been describing the process by which I
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Compositional Process: The Melody of Life (Part 2)
In Part 1 of this series, I began to describe the process by which I composed my Nocturne No. 2
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Compositional Process: The Melody of Life (Part 1)
My composing involves a blend of musical intuition and analytical judgment. Melody is central to my music, and typically I
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Technology and Playability
Modern technology is a blessing for modern composers. It enables us to create and disseminate professional-quality scores with little or
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Connected Movements
In all my large-scale compositions, one of my primary aesthetic goals has been to create a unified art-work. That applies
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The Craft of Composition
“Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.” –Johannes Brahms A young acquaintance of mine informed me
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About My Scores
The cycle of musical creation is not complete without the performer, and the ideal performer is typically someone other than
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Curiosity of the Composer
In a previous blog post, I shared some advice I have offered in response to queries from young composers. As
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Advice to Young Composers
In recent years I have received several inquiries from young composers or would-be composers, asking me: “How do you compose?”
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Vibrations of Sympathy
The violin was the first instrument I studied formally, and I took my first lessons around the time of my
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The Composer and the Performer
Sergei Rachmaninoff is widely recognized as one of the finest of all pianists, with technical and interpretative powers of the
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The Amadeus Myth
The popular film Amadeus, based on a stage play of the same name, depicts Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from the vantage
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