Transcription

I'm amazed that I haven't ever been urged to copy scores. I've only spent a few hours with Toru Takemitsu's incredible string quartet A Way A Lone, and I'm startled. I feel much more conversant in his language, and much more confident at the page. If I ever teach, my students will do this. It's interesting to copy out a stretch vertically, stacking harmonies, and then take the a stretch horizontally to feel the lines. Working at that pace, hands and ears so slow, is a much better look into the composer's mind than listening, which changes too: even Takemitsu's inveterate Andante now flies by my ears in a blur.