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.

When you have performers, there's the uniqueness of live performance and what performers do in concerts.

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.

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.

It's always a thrill for me to see new versions of my pieces on YouTube.

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.

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