Creativity and Composition Archive

You’ve got to make your cre­ativ­ity a habit, and stick with it! The impor­tance of this lit­tle tid­bit of wis­dom is very evi­dent to me all of a sudden. Last […]1February 8, 2010

The Importance of Habit

You’ve got to make your cre­ativ­ity a habit, and stick with it! The impor­tance of this lit­tle tid­bit of wis­dom is very evi­dent to me all of a sud­den. Last […]

You hear the word diva bounced around all the time. We know what we mean by it, but what’s a good work­ing def­i­n­i­tion? I rather like this one, that Jon […]0November 6, 2009

What’s a diva?

You hear the word diva bounced around all the time. We know what we mean by it, but what’s a good work­ing def­i­n­i­tion? I rather like this one, that Jon […]

It’s inter­est­ing how we get so entrenched in one way of doing things. We become hard­ened (maybe even defen­sive?) against change, pre­fer­ring the com­fort of what we know. This is […]3October 24, 2009

Sibelius, Finale, and entrenchment

It’s inter­est­ing how we get so entrenched in one way of doing things. We become hard­ened (maybe even defen­sive?) against change, pre­fer­ring the com­fort of what we know. This is […]

With the huge down­turn in the econ­omy over the last year, the stock mar­ket is on everyone’s mind. It’s a funny busi­ness because of all the euphemisms. One hears talk […]0October 22, 2009

What the stock market says about creative evolution

With the huge down­turn in the econ­omy over the last year, the stock mar­ket is on everyone’s mind. It’s a funny busi­ness because of all the euphemisms. One hears talk […]

Like many other peo­ple before me, and many oth­ers after me, I moved to New York City because it was the cen­ter of it all, espe­cially for clas­si­cal music. This has […]0September 30, 2009

Why move to New York?

Like many other peo­ple before me, and many oth­ers after me, I moved to New York City because it was the cen­ter of it all, espe­cially for clas­si­cal music. This has […]

In the pitched bat­tle between Sibelius and Finale, one con­stant crit­i­cism has been that Sibelius sac­ri­fices con­trol and power¬†in an effort to make mat­ters sim­ple for the end user. Advo­cates […]0August 13, 2009

Sibelius explains its slurs

In the pitched bat­tle between Sibelius and Finale, one con­stant crit­i­cism has been that Sibelius sac­ri­fices con­trol and power¬†in an effort to make mat­ters sim­ple for the end user. Advocates […]

This looks like an inter­est­ing pod­cast from the Library of Con­gress. (Click the image; link opens iTunes on your computer.)2August 12, 2009

Music and the Brain

This looks like an inter­est­ing pod­cast from the Library of Con­gress. (Click the image; link opens iTunes on your computer.)

I’ve seen com­posers in rehearsals be pretty tough on their play­ers, and I always think, “hey, there’s no need to antag­o­nize the peo­ple who are going to per­form your music!” […]0July 16, 2009

Jennifer Higdon on rehearsal etiquette

I’ve seen com­posers in rehearsals be pretty tough on their play­ers, and I always think, “hey, there’s no need to antag­o­nize the peo­ple who are going to per­form your music!” […]

My friend Haim Avit­sur par­tic­i­pated in a per­for­mance of “Orbits” for 80 trom­bones, soprano, and organ. (Haim was not the soprano, and he doesn’t play the organ!) The piece is […]3June 23, 2009

Another element of music?

My friend Haim Avit­sur par­tic­i­pated in a per­for­mance of “Orbits” for 80 trom­bones, soprano, and organ. (Haim was not the soprano, and he doesn’t play the organ!) The piece is […]

If you are enter­ing the word “apple”¬†in to your nota­tion pro­gram for a song lyric, is it “app-le” or is it “ap-ple?” Instead of going to your dic­tio­nary or look­ing […]0June 10, 2009

Scoring tip for Mac users

If you are enter­ing the word “apple”¬†in to your nota­tion pro­gram for a song lyric, is it “app-le” or is it “ap-ple?” Instead of going to your dic­tio­nary or looking […]

This is sort of an infor­ma­tional post for those who might not be clued in. Both Finale and Sibelius have announced new ver­sions in the last few weeks. I had […]1June 6, 2009

Finale 2010, Sibelius 6

This is sort of an infor­ma­tional post for those who might not be clued in. Both Finale and Sibelius have announced new ver­sions in the last few weeks. I had […]

Lately I’ve been think­ing a lot about com­pos­ing for the voice.¬† I typ­i­cally look for a text and rec­og­nize quickly if I think it will work for me as a […]0April 28, 2009

What the voice can do

Lately I’ve been think­ing a lot about com­pos­ing for the voice.¬† I typ­i­cally look for a text and rec­og­nize quickly if I think it will work for me as a […]

I write music, and I also write about music. So this quote from singer-songwriter Andrew Bird has some res­o­nance for me: Ulti­mately, I think that writ­ing about music is a delib­er­ate […]0April 22, 2009

Creating music | Writing about music

I write music, and I also write about music. So this quote from singer-songwriter Andrew Bird has some res­o­nance for me: Ulti­mately, I think that writ­ing about music is a deliberate […]

I had a chance to meet Raoul Pleskow today and hear a fas­ci­nat­ing lec­ture by him. He said some­thing very inter­est­ing that reflected a use­ful change of per­spec­tive. When writ­ing […]0April 19, 2009

An interesting change of perspective

I had a chance to meet Raoul Pleskow today and hear a fas­ci­nat­ing lec­ture by him. He said some­thing very inter­est­ing that reflected a use­ful change of per­spec­tive. When writing […]

Dan­ger music? What’s that? Elas­tic scor­ing? Hmm! I found these and many other inter­est­ing sub­jects in Wikipedia today. I thought I would share them! See these pages about: Cat­e­gory: Musi­cal notation0April 15, 2009

Danger music? Elastic scoring?

Dan­ger music? What’s that? Elas­tic scor­ing? Hmm! I found these and many other inter­est­ing sub­jects in Wikipedia today. I thought I would share them! See these pages about: Cat­e­gory: Musi­cal notation

Stu­dents of the great Ger­man philoso­pher Hegel are famil­iar with his notion of the dialec­ti­cal process. It is com­monly summed up as the way a pre­vail­ing the­sis is con­fronted by […]0April 9, 2009

What’s the opposite of creativity?

Stu­dents of the great Ger­man philoso­pher Hegel are famil­iar with his notion of the dialec­ti­cal process. It is com­monly summed up as the way a pre­vail­ing the­sis is con­fronted by […]

Ruth Richards’s excel­lent book, Every­day Cre­ativ­ity fea­tures an essay by Mark A. Runco called “To Under­stand is to Cre­ate.” In this essay, Runco argues for three stages of cre­ativ­ity, pick­ing […]0April 4, 2009

Postconventionality and creativity

Ruth Richards’s excel­lent book, Every­day Cre­ativ­ity fea­tures an essay by Mark A. Runco called “To Under­stand is to Cre­ate.” In this essay, Runco argues for three stages of cre­ativ­ity, picking […]

I’ve argued before in this blog about the con­strict­ing ele­ments of copy­right: that the mate­r­ial you are look­ing for is harder to come by in legit­i­mate form. (The full score […]0April 2, 2009

Respect for copyright

I’ve argued before in this blog about the con­strict­ing ele­ments of copy­right: that the mate­r­ial you are look­ing for is harder to come by in legit­i­mate form. (The full score […]

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