I never thought that I would write orchestra music, but in fact I did write a group of orchestra pieces.

I found myself recycling ideas and I saw that I had to invent reasons to compose a piece rather than start from some exciting idea.

My perspective on the academic world is very favorable. I did certain kinds of things that I could never have done otherwise.

The experimentation that I do has a lot to do with tunes and pitches and ways that melodies are put together.

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.

I think of myself as experimenting with different ways of structuring pieces. A lot of it has to do with the computer, of course.

It's very interesting for me to listen to music with my wife. She's not a musician but she very often makes comments about pieces in ways that are similar to what I'm thinking.