I have always found it stimulating to talk with other composers, and not only to the other American minimalists. Do they have the same problems and questions that I have? What can we learn from one another? How can we help one another? With the exception of a few letters, composer-to-composer communication is largely absent from the files of music history, and I thought it could be useful to introduce some Music by my Friends in my own personal way. I love the compositions of these people, even when they are quite different from my own, and I want listeners to hear them through the ears of another composer.