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

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

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.

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

Very often, when you're listening to a piece for the first time, you're listening through a model of other pieces that you know. At a certain point, a piece becomes idiosyncratic and you start to understand it on its own terms.

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.

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.