I walk into my office to a large stack of music on my desk, and my stomach turns over as I anticipate a collection of outlandish instrument requests by the composer. I can’t help but chuckle as I read down the list: propeller engine, guillotine sound, the bay of a Central American burro (alright, I made the last one up). Composers’ demands are getting stranger and stranger.
It comes with the job. Finding these instruments—or at the very least, a way to imitate the required sound—should be a challenge. These days, with all the wonderful technology available, it can be as simple as finding the correct sound effect or synthesized instrument on the Internet and playing it through a computer hooked up to an amp (this strategy proves useful when playing Harry Partch’s music). It’s a quick fix, but does it too often take some of the artistry out of what we do?
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