less in the order that they were developed, and starts with the existential question of "what is music?" Students then proceed through a process of discovery beginning with the overtone series and improvisations inside the piano. This method of teaching musicianship breaks with conventional methods of music education, most notably in The Walden School's teaching of intervals and modes before teaching functional harmony. The Walden School has recently published a textbook titled The Walden School Musicianship Course: A Manual for Teachers about its methodology. Composition Walden School alumni see Walden as a "composition camp", although technically composition is not at the core of the Walden curriculum. The method employed by composition teachers depends on the level of the student. In beginner classes comprising new and inexperienced students, a more improvisation-oriented approach is taken. More advanced classes take an open-ended approach, in that students are encouraged to compose any style they please while simultaneously receiving guidance from their composition teacher on orchestration and notation techniques. Computer music Computer music was added to the Walden School Musicianship and Composition curriculum in 2000, when a computer lab was first installed. The lab uses Apple Power Mac computers, each supplied with Digidesign Mbox hardware and Reaper software. Students use a Digital Audio Tape (DAT) recorder with a stereo microphone to record sounds, and then later upload these recordings to the Power Macs and begin composing electronic pieces primarily using Reaper software. Other popular pieces of software used among Walden School students to manipulate the sounds they record are Soundhack. Max/MSP is a more sophisticated digital audio signal processing application and is used exclusively among the Walden School faculty. Faculty Commissioning Project The Walden School Faculty are active composers, performers and educators. The Faculty Commissioning Project offers opportunities for collaborating with resident musicians and premiering new works. Past Walden School directors 2004–present Seth Brenzel 1996–2003 Patricia Plude 1994–1995 Stephen Coxe 1983–1994 Pamela Layman Quist 1972–1982 David Hogan References External links Hand Over Hand, Walden School alumni Press coverage Music schools in New Hampshire Education in Cheshire County, New Hampshire Summer camps in New Hampshire Buildings and structures in Dublin, New Hampshire Music schools in Vermont Vershire, Vermont