I’m working with a composer who wrote a musical and had it arranged for several instruments and computer track. The composer engaged me to reduce the music so that the score could be played by 2 people. Welcome to the world of music reduction — you’ve seen this world before, but in a different way.

My mission is to take the body of the composer’s work and reduce it to its essence. I get to ask questions like:

• Who is this for?

• What was intended?

• What is this for?

• What is the effect we’re trying to create?

I then remove everything that doesn’t help me answer those questions. What’s remaining is essential and elegant.

We can, and arguably should, become the music reductionists of our lives and our work.