ABSTRACT
John Chowning and Leland Smith had just demonstrated to our introductory computer music class how a music language called SCORE (Smith) could capture musical ideas and, at the push of a button, trigger an almost magical process in which fantastically complex scores were computed and then realized by instruments unimpeded by the laws of physics. At that instant it became clear to me that there was an entire level of notation above the scores that I had been writing in my regular composition classes, a level I knew nothing about! But I could see that in this level it was possible to notate my compositional ideas in a precise manner and work with them in an almost physical way, as "trapped words" that could be unleashed into musical sound at the push of a button. Equally important was the realization that this new (to me) level was essentially devoid of any preconceived notions of "musical correctness" and so offered me an attractive alternative to the symbols and glyphs of Common Practice music, which I increasing felt were too tied to historical tradition. I too, "shivered with a desire to do this wondrous thing myself' and, as I look back on it now more than twenty years later, I realize that this moment was one in which my life's path was irrevocably altered.
