Beckstead, David.(2001) “Will Technology Transform Music Education”?  Music Educators Journal,
             vol. 87, no. 6, 44-49.

Beckstead states:

   Composers in Western society, like their literary and visual counterparts, have been shrouded in
   the mystique of the suffering, misunderstood, intellectually gifted artist. Familiar anecdotes picture
   Bach going blind by candlelight, Haydn praying for inspiration, and Beethoven tearing up manuscript
   pages in a rage, as each goes about the serious business of “writing music, at a desk, with pencil and
   manuscript.”1

Although intellectual and technological forces are redefining the role of composition in Western music

education, these technologies may actually have been used so far to reinforce traditional methods of

compositions rather than exploring new possibilities for composition. ‘Intellectual” refers to the writings

and examples of certain musicians and educators who have called for a rethinking of the traditional place of

composition in the music education curriculum.  “Technological” refers to specific composing

technologies, such as personal computers, synthesizers, and MIDI (musical instrument digital interface).
 

Computer software sequencers attached to multi-timbral synthesizers via MIDI allow students to record

their ideas from the synthesizer’s keyboard into the computer’s memory as digital data that is then

infinitely manipulable and convertible to standard notation. From the efficiency standpoint, a student could

compose a string quartet by inputting one part, or even one note, at the time. Repeated playing by the

system allows for constant scrutiny and revision, without the need for gathering the required musicians.

Parts could then be transposed to correct clefs, and scores printed out. Thus, the overall process of

producing the string quartet has been made more efficient because the student need have only a

rudimentary knowledge of notation and string performance practice.
 

In the traditional realm of note-oriented composition for traditional acoustic instruments, technologies used

at the school level (MIDI, basic synthesizers, and personal computers) should be employed as an

intermediate and efficient step in the composing process. Viewed this way, they are a powerful tool for the

majority of students obstructed by limited knowledge of Western notation and access to performing

musicians. But users of such technologies should be aware of the limiting feature within this approach, that

of the inability to mimic all the subtleties and complexities of human performance.
 
 
 

Conclusion:

 MIDI technology opens avenues for composition students (helps to open the once closed door to

traditional  note-oriented composition for students, ) as well as offers opportunities of writing music that

could not be realized in a traditional human acoustic setting. Whether teachers employ these tools in an

efficient and or transformative fashion is less important than the need to make them, and their students

aware of the limitations of such technology toward mechanical reproductions and Western classical

notation systems. Teachers need to glimpse beyond the efficiency of basic technologies and look for ways

in which they can reevaluate  the practice of composing with the aid of  technology.
 
 

Note:

1 Colin Durrant and Graham Welch, Making Sense of Music (London: Cassel, 1995), 16.