Can Stravinsky's ideas apply to digital music creation?
The principles remain constant, regardless of the medium. Whether crafting a ballet score or composing for whatever new sonic apparatus now exists, the essential act is one of construction, of imposing order. The digital realm, I imagine, offers unprecedented possibilities for precise manipulation of sonic materials, for intricate rhythmic layering and formal development. The danger, as always, lies in succumbing to facile novelty or emotional effusion. The composer must still be a maker, a craftsman, who uses the tools at hand – digital or otherwise – to forge coherent, disciplined musical objects. To listen is an effort; to create is a discipline.
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