This text is a practical guide to the compositional techniques, resources, and technologies available to composers today. Each chapter traces the development of traditional and modern elements that form the foundation of music in the late twentieth century. Among the subjects discussed are interval exploration, serialism, pitch-class sets, twelve-tone music, electronic music, algorithmic composition, and indeterminacy Virtual music -- Staring Emmy Straight in the eye - and doing my best not to flinch / Douglas Hofstadter -- Response to Hofstadter -- Composing style-specific music -- The importance of patterns -- Structure -- Databases -- Analysis -- Themes and variations -- Interface -- Composition, combinatorics, and simulation: a historical and philosophical enquiry / Eleanor Selfridge-Field -- Experiments in musical intelligence and Bach / Bernard Greenberg -- Dear Emmy: a counterpoint teacher's thoughts on the experiments in musical intelligence program's two-part inventions / Steve Larson -- Who cares if it listens? an essay on creativity, expectations, and computational modeling of listening to music / Jonathan Berger -- Collision detection, Muselot, and scribble: some reflections on creativity / Daniel Dennett -- A few standard questions and answers / Douglas Hofstadter -- Response to commentaries -- Perspectives and the future -- Mozart databases -- An experiment in musical intelligence: Mozart movement -- An experiment in musical intelligence: Mozart reject -- Virtual music -- The game key