A few years ago I was despairing, particularly about software that would no longer run. But now I think we’re in a transitional period. Emulators are appearing in languages that can be updated. Old hardware is decreasingly significant with the extensive level of emulation becoming available. Music programs that I wrote 30-plus years ago are running again under emulation, and are spread around among many people who have been interested in them. With smarter computer technology, whole classes of computers (including short-lived ones of the 1980s) will be emulated and that emulation moved upward through developing technologies. That means the chances of a composer’s work in electronic form will survive somewhere to be discovered like old Bach.

Yes, a lot of work will be lost while we are waiting, especially if the source materials themselves have become corrupt. And a lot will be lost by those who are not interested in archiving, or who are careless — a fact that continues to amaze me. I hear a lot of “I’m more interested in my next composition, not my last one.”

But artwork is always lost — even physical objects that surprise us. Artists who worked in plastics 50 years ago are seeing their work yellow, fracture and powder. Museums are engaging in massive restoration campaigns for recent artwork that match their efforts to recover Renaissance murals.

Here are 10-year-old and 5-year-old articles I wrote that cover the situation then. It’s amazing how much progress has been made in so little time:
http://www.maltedmedia.com/books/papers/sl-archv.html
http://cec.sonus.ca/education/archive/10_x/bathorykitsz_preservation.html

Dennis

I’d definitely suggest updating your local backup drive more often than twice a year. Have at least 3 current copies of anything you care about (right now you only have 2, unless you’ve got more than 1 copy in cloud storage).

Good question for everybody to ask: “If my main computer disappeared today, what would be the MOST RECENT existing copy of the files I’m working on?” Preventing lost work (and work hours) in the future is worth some thinking now.

I’m not sure I buy Keeril’s suggestion that all composers battling with depression fear how it will impact their work if they are treated. In my discussion with creatives, I’ve come to learn that when you are in the grips of a major depressive episode, you may not be able to work at all. Indeed, those I know who are really dealing with depression don’t toy with it: they fear it as an unwelcome and unbidden visitor.

The notion that depression (or addiction) is a little seasoning to our creative juices is a pernicious one that has caused a lot of self-inflicted wounds by artists. Going after “dark moments” to spur your creativity, which is what is described in the article, is very different from experiencing brain chemistry gone haywire and completely out of your control. Having worked with blocked composers who deal with severe emotional issues, I can only hope that Mr. Makan doesn’t try and share this tidbit of “method acting” with his students. I also steadfastly reject the notion that composers are inevitably reflecting their emotional life in their music. Some of Mozart’s most joyful works are written from the depths of mourning. It is a romantic notion, but it just doesn’t hold up for everyone. Keeril is free to explore his dark materials, but I’d urge other composers not to feel compelled to “emote all their notes.”

Do you mean less than 10 performances a year?

Any composer with a few friends and even mediocre music writing skills should be able have this happening by the time they are out of their master’s degree.

Maybe instead of minutes written we should be talking about adding up the enthusiasm for any given collection of music, spread out among the audience. Maybe we’d count someone who had a completely transcendent experience listening to it (whether live or online) a 1, and someone who didn’t even listen to the piece a 0, and rate everything in between, then add that up for the whole audience. That would probably give us a more helpful number to measure “output” than minutes of music or number of pieces. Comparing that number to hours put into writing would probably be more enlightening.

The commonality with Baroque music was the speed and the premise that I was in service to the folks commissioning the music — they would specify length, orchestration, etc., as well as some idea of the approach the music should take.

Where it departed was that the range of music was more extreme than Vivaldi had to face with his melange orphan ensemble: electroacoustic (about a dozen) and one for just Midi; solos for cello, ukulele, trombone, soprano sax, theremin, violin, horn, flute, marimba, extended voice, accordion, piano, double bass, organ, clarinet, viola, tenor guitar, tenor pan, jew’s harp, alto sax, bass clarinet, piano with jingle bells inside; duos for voice/piano, cello/guitar, bass clarinet/bassoon, 2 celli (four of these), mandocello/piano, tenor pan/cello, trumpet/organ, cello/contrabass, 2 clavichords, piano four-hands, viola/bass clarinet, organ/computer; trios for three horns, three oboes, voice/anvil/piano, violin/cello/piano, voice/flute/guitar, voice/clarinet/vibraphone; quartets for voice/violin/viola/piano, string quartet, viola/horn/cello/piano; pieces for five guitars played by one person, clarinet & string quartet, brass ensemble, flute/bass clarinet/violin/cello/piano (that was the 30-minute one), several a cappella choral pieces, and orchestra.

As for how they were written: Some were sketched on paper and input. Others were through-composed in Finale (I’ve been using it for 19 years and it’s like an instrument to me).

And to the point on efficiency, some of these were being prepared for performance as they were being finished and others were being written. The ‘nuts and bolts’ simply had to be available to me, whether in mental pen & ink or via notation software.

Finally, the question of quality. This part of the conversation bothers me. How can this be assessed? No, I’m not suggesting a bendy everything-is-okay approach. Do we overlook Beethoven’s early crap or Bach’s stuck-in-the-past last 20 years? Forgive Carter because of his age? Consider a young composer ‘practicing’ on the notation software ‘instrument’ to be developing? I just don’t know how to think about it other than to use my gut. I know those few of the 100 pieces that were weak and which were really good. Were they rough or not? I think almost all were polished in that internal speed with which artists can operate under pressure.

Anyway, I gotta go make dinner. Still thinking about it 5 five years later….