Composers Forum

Check out the a really thought-provoking article on composer work habits at the New Music Box:

http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=4789

Taking a cue from the fantastic new digs Sequenza21 has due to Jerry and Jeff, the concept of web presence springs to mind as a good first topic in the forum. I myself have been slowly but steadily working on creating an online presence over the past year (amazing how finishing a dissertation allows one time for such things) and so far I’ve created a decent non-flash website, a myspace site and (as of last night) a nice little Wiki entry on the Sequenza21 site. Add to that the postings I’ve done on this site as well as comments I’ve sporadically interjected on the NewMusicBox and Adapstration sites – not a huge presence, but I’d hope someone noticed I’m here. The fact that these inroads can be acheived is imperative to those of us who aren’t blessed with a residence in a major metropolitan hub – Oklahoma City is a fine city, but I’d be hard-pressed to have a career solely as a regional composer (as if I’m not already hard-pressed having a career as a composer, period).

I’m curious to see what your thoughts are on the need of composers to have an online presence, how you’ve gone about making your own presence known and where do you see this taking us in the future? Here’s a few related questions – pick and choose as you like:

• What do you see as essential components of a composer’s web site? What about other components that you hate to see on a composer’s site?
• How much time do you spend on upkeep and updates? Do you find this to be a drain on your creative efforts?
• Have you had good or bad luck putting music (both recordings and scores) online, if you do at all? What works, what doesn’t?
• Do you have any favorite composer’s sites that you would point to as models of fantastic design, usefulness and ease of navigation

I must admit, it was fun to have my freshman theory class tell me they liked my myspace site… they loved the idea of keeping tabs on their teacher online untill I informed them that I had already checked out their Facebook pages. Nothing like making a bunch of 18-year olds blush at 8am.

Note to Jerry: Ahhhhhhhhh…posting on the new system is a very good thing!