If we look at music history closely, it is not difficult to isolate certain elements of great potency which were to nourish the art of music for decades, if not centuries. |
In a broader sense, the rhythms of nature, large and small - the sounds of wind and water, the sounds of birds and insects - must inevitably find their analogues in music. |
In any case, the task of finding fresh approaches to opera and to choral music will be inherited by the future. |
In general, I feel that the more rationalistic approaches to pitch-organization, including specifically serial technique, have given way, largely, to a more intuitive approach. |
It is easy to write unthinking music. |
Most of my influences are turn-of-the-century. |
My younger son is a rock archivist practically; I'm sure things have filtered out of that - it's in the air in this house. |
Nonetheless, I sense that it will be the task of the future to somehow synthesize the sheer diversity of our present resources into a more organic and well-ordered procedure. |
Numerous recordings of non-Western music are readily available, and live performances by touring groups can be heard even in our smaller cities. |
One very important aspect of our contemporary musical culture - some might say the supremely important aspect - is its extension in the historical and geographical senses to a degree unknown in the past. |
Perhaps many of the perplexing problems of the new music could be put into a new light if we were to reintroduce the ancient idea of music being a reflection of nature. |
Perhaps of all the most basic elements of music, rhythm most directly affects our central nervous system. |
Perhaps two million years ago the creatures of a planet in some remote galaxy faced a musical crisis similar to that which we earthly composers face today. |
The advent of electronically synthesized sound after World War II has unquestionably had enormous influence on music in general. |
The development of new instrumental and vocal idioms has been one of the remarkable phenomena of recent music. |