Threatened to be thrown out for writing like Bach?

And it makes me want to punch babies.

Clearly, you aren't cut out for babysitting, SSC. Remind me to NEVER hire you to babysit my kids... if I ever ask. :D

And you're right, no two students should ever be treated equally, even ones with similar interests and influences.

I'd even ask this round of questions to a student who wrote a piece I thought was perfectly acceptable. The same rules apply...

What do you know about writing this kind of music?

How does understanding this kind of music help you express your ideas?

etc.

This is one way to cognitively overcome writer's block as well. If we discipline ourselves as composers to always consider what we know about the idiom we've used, what we understand about what we wrote, what specifically about it could be done another way, and so on... we'll never be short of ideas for new works.

I've got three new works brewing in the ole noggin as I'm typing this... and good thing, too, because I have about three different groups/individuals asking me to write something for them. One of them is a composition professor who wants me to write something 'avant garde' to submit for a composition contest... and wants to assist in the editing process. I'm not even a composition student anymore, so it's really more of an endearing offer I'm totally going to take her up on.

Hey guys,

I was at a music seminar last week and during a discussion about imitation vs. originality and whether it's possible to really write like Bach without plagiarizing, a DMA student there (phD) in composition told us the story of a friend of his who, if continuing to write (or trying to write) in the style of J.S. Bach, would have to leave the university.

Does anyone else find this to be quite disturbing? o_O