David Lang

You know how everything's going, but it's not alive yet.

And it's not big and it's not powerful and doesn't have the huge reach.

It's not real yet.

And when you write, what do you write on?

I'm from the generation before computers.

So I was taught how to write with a pencil on a piece of paper.

And I'm not a very good keyboard player.

So I'm not from the school of composers that sits down at the piano and plays a bunch of stuff and then goes, oh, that's beautiful.

I'm going to write it down.

So I began as a composer who was supposed to sing things to himself and then write them down.

So I work on a computer on a software program that's the most like having a pencil on a piece of paper.

What's it called?

It's called Encore.

And I can't ever upgrade any of my computers because the software hasn't been upgraded.

But the thing which is interesting about this software is it's so Stone Age-ish.

That it lets you do all sorts of things that other programs will just autocorrect.

Other programs are sophisticated, and they don't want you to make mistakes.

But in my writing, I actually embrace all the mistakes, and I don't want my software to correct them.

And then when you write a flute part or timpani part or whatever it is, how do you hear that?

The other parts are just things that you approximate.