Even today, I notice that some of my pieces are explicitly tonal; there are actually tonics and dominants. And then there are pieces that are not tonal. I tend to think that there's a dichotomy that has to do with the way pitches are structured. Paul Lansky More Quotes by Paul Lansky More Quotes From Paul Lansky I didn't want my music to be seen as examples of an electronic culture; I just wanted them to be thought of as pieces of music. Paul Lansky pieces example want I can't say that there's a common practice that has to do with pitch language or with the way pieces are put together because today, anything is fair game. As far as I'm concerned, my own common practice is a piece that engages the attention of listeners from beginning to end, and doesn't rely on or expect the listener to zone out. Paul Lansky practice games together If the music has a logic of its own - as I think my music has - an open-minded listener will apprehend and understand. Paul Lansky logic open-minded thinking I've had a lot of fun writing percussion music. It feels quite similar to writing computer music. But I found myself in the role of choreographer in a way, worrying about physical movement and such. Paul Lansky worry writing fun My perspective on the academic world is very favorable. I did certain kinds of things that I could never have done otherwise. Paul Lansky perspective done world I've been really fortunate to have Bridge Records interested in publishing my music for the past 25 years. Most of my music is available in their catalog. Paul Lansky bridges past years With repeated listenings, a piece eventually becomes its own being. I very often say to students that this is like meeting a person for the first time. When you first meet someone, you reference that person with others who are similar; but, as you get to know that person better, you begin to understand his unique qualities. Paul Lansky quality unique listening With a piece of classical music by Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven, on first listening I'm referencing it with other pieces by them that I know. I think that most people do this - they listen to pieces through the filter of pieces they already know. Paul Lansky listening people thinking There are, however, composers whose music can only be heard in a chromatic sense. George Perle, for example, wrote pieces that you might think of as leaning in a tonal direction but it's very hard to register a pitch as, say, the sixth degree of a scale, whereas in much of my music I think that's often relatively easy to do. Paul Lansky pieces example thinking The experimentation that I do has a lot to do with tunes and pitches and ways that melodies are put together. Paul Lansky tunes together way When you have performers, there's the uniqueness of live performance and what performers do in concerts. Paul Lansky concerts performers performances I never thought that I would write orchestra music, but in fact I did write a group of orchestra pieces. Paul Lansky orchestra pieces writing I wrote a lot of software to do various kinds of special things, and I loved the idea of composing pieces in an electronic studio. Paul Lansky pieces special ideas I was hired for a really excellent academic job early in my life; I was twenty-five when I started at Princeton and I got tenure early on. I really didn't deserve this; I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Paul Lansky academic twenties jobs I think of myself as an experimentalist even though much of my music sounds logical and normal, in a sense. Paul Lansky normal sound thinking I was very fortunate to be at a wealthy institution. I do recognize the drawbacks and limitations of the academic world but it's basically the world I grew up in and there's no way in which I would have been able to survive in the so-called real world. Paul Lansky able real world I think you'll find a significant number of people who decide not to enter competitions because their music just won't fit in that world. Paul Lansky numbers people thinking It's always a thrill for me to see new versions of my pieces on YouTube. Paul Lansky youtube thrill pieces I noticed things in my computer music that were getting old, and I started to figure out that this has to do with the way the listener interacts with music. Paul Lansky computer figures way I came to what I think of as the critical problem: the aging process of a piece of music. I noticed in the '70s that pieces I wrote would sound great the first time I listened to them and then on repeated hearings they sounded older and older until what seemed exciting and vibrant on first listening became stale. Paul Lansky pieces listening thinking
