ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how computers are being used to aid the composing process. Composing electronic music requires, in most cases, fluency with technology and a familiarity with procedures. The medium of electronic music presents its own unique problems for the composer. Musicians accustomed to reading notes and rhythms often are shocked by the bareness of the notation compared to familiar conventional scores which direct their attention to specific pitches and rhythms which to them seem predictable and repeatable. Many elements affect the composition of music, among them the emotional, social, cultural, religious, and political. Technology poses a unique challenge to the composer who may find it difficult to separate the acts of conceiving and writing music from analyzing and processing sound, recording, sampling, synthesizing, performing, and even networking music. Computational thinking has always been a component of the composer’s method, no matter what the era, style, or genre of music.
