here in front of me-- here's a kurzweil synthesizer. hundreds of thousands of these are made. ade for consumers. and of course, the synthesis got linked to computing. one way of making a piece is to make the piece on a synthesizer and record as you go on the computer-- no notation, y'know, playing, playing. i like this. i don't like that. try it again. record again on the computer as a sequence. little by little, i began to realize that the music that i wrote was very shaped by the technology i was using to write it. the process became sort of passive. i did way more listening and way less writing. it was slowed down, and i was losing track of the shaping of it. so i switched over to paper and pencil again. and after a while, it began to seem that i could work either way interchangeably. all instruments have developed technologically, and it slowly, slowly changes. the important thing to remember is it doesn't get better. technology gets better, but the music of the middle ages is as compelling, is as good as the music of the 20th century, and i know some would say better. ther