Description: How do today's serious concert composers write their music? This is a unique collection of recent interviews with twenty-five of America's important contemporary composers, all born between 1930 and 1960. Here, a wide range of representative artists -- from Adams to Zorn, from Bolcom to Vierk -- speak candidly about how they think in sound, shape musical ideas, and ultimately transfer sonic conceptions to the printed page. The interviews have been edited to stand as concise meditations on craft and inspiration, method and muse. While they focus on both the creative act and the creation of specific works, they also address such related themes as revision, early teachers or mentors, balancing artistic freedom and discipline, relationships with performers, and more. Some of the composers describe personal tonal systems; others discuss the impact of computers or other electronic machines on their work; still others reflect philosophically on the various impulses and influences that continue to drive them. All of these interviews will fascinate readers interested in the work of the composer at the end of the twentieth century.

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