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You are not using the word "philosophy" consistently. Sometimes you seem to be talking about philosophy as in true philosophy, sometimes as zeitgeist, and sometimes as a colloquial trivialization of the term. I'm afraid debate is pointless unless we know exactly what we are debating about. Your question is messy and badly formulated, sorry.

Let me try: 1. Depends on potential size of the composition. More frequently there are minor corrections, but occasionally I need larger ones as well. I am intending to have a larger revision of my new choral piece "Svetla pesem". I am not happy with it at all. :) 2. Mostly the changing things are for easier performance (technical reasons). 3. I am not really sucker for later revisions. Once the composition is performed, it should have remained untouched, unless there are serious problems in it. For example: Sibelius was unhappy with his composition Kullervo and forbade its performance during his living. That was a stupid thing to do since it has turned out to be a very mature and fine composition in his opus. And Rautavaara has three or four versions of his first symphony, with the most used two-movement version being relatively strange with long slow movement and short scherzo finale. I prefer to use the experience in future works while being aware of weaknesses of performed work. 4. My targer is usually to make the form a bit longer - I often make the first version too short. But I don't give the score out until I am satisfied.

As someone with no keyboard skills whatsoever, I'd say that the only disadvantage has been that I'm only just starting to come to grips with composing effectively for piano and it still doesn't come naturally to me. However, I tend to use the guitar as a compositional tool in much the same way as I would imagine that a pianist would use a piano. I find that when I compose with my guitar, the material seems to have a much more natural flow about it than when I compose with notation software but there is the danger of falling into the trap of familiar finger patterns and quickly losing any sense of purpose. On the other hand, composing solely using notation programs has a tendency to lead to mechanical musical decisions. I would like to do an experiment one time with all of the music uploaded to this site to see how many pieces are in 4/4 at 100bpm in the key of C. I think there would be a correlation between the number of pieces and the number of Sibelius users. I think I agree with Sarastro that it is best to improvise some ideas with an instrument then take them away and refine them on paper/notation software. That way you get a good mix between natural flow and rational structure.

@.fseventsd: This is an interesting aspect. I wasn't really aware that the question of composing with piano is intertwined with the question of composing with music software. But it's true, of course! The composition with music software which is so common nowadays may also result in a decline of the inner musical imagination of some composers (and the inability to get an impression of how written music would sound). @Sarastro: Thanks for this insight into your technique of composition and your very substantial contribution to the topic. P.S. It is interesting that such a great composer as Berlioz never learned to play the piano. Quote from Wikipedia: "As a result of his father's discouragement, he [berlioz] never learned to play the piano, a peculiarity he later described as both beneficial and detrimental."