[Smt-talk] Keyboards for theory classes?

[David Feurzeig]

On May 7, 2014, at 6:31 PM, Peter Schubert, Prof. wrote:
> I sympathize with Hali's worry about the student's distance from the production of sound, which is why I am a fanatic about "play'n'sing." Listening to recordings and composing at the computer are mostly useless for my students.

Way back before computer notation was the norm, and digital music labs barely existed, David Lewin was advising a counterpoint class on the importance of *singing* the repertoire to learn the idom. He said, "'Listening'? I don't know what 'listening' is."

Composition and theory are already the most disembodied forms of musical engagement, and I feel a need to reinforce the physical. To paraphrase Lewin, I don't know what 'virtual' is.

I recognize that the world has changed. I tell my students that if they're writing electronic music, the computer may be the logical home base. I also say there's no right answer:John Adams, for ex., composes drafts on his sequencer, then writes a full score by hand, then gives it to his copyist (because he doesn't do computer notation!). Even Thomas Ades is using a computer now to audition complex layerings. But that in my class they have to spend a substantial amount of time composing (respectively) with only their voice, with only their instrument, and with only the piano (and I tell them the purist types used to regard the *keyboard as a crutch).