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 deca….

Perhaps of all the most basic elements of music, rhythm most directly affects our central nervous system..

I am optimistic about the future of music..

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 an….

Writing seems to be more difficult as you move through the years..

The retrospective glance is a relatively easy gesture for us to make..

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 ….

Music might be defined as a system of proportions in the service of a spiritual impulse.

One very important aspect of our contemporary musical culture - some might say the supremely important aspect - is its extension in the historical an….

This is not a happy time for this kind of music in this country..

The rhythms of nature - the sounds of wind and water, the sounds of birds and insects - must inevitably find their analogues in music..

The development of new instrumental and vocal idioms has been one of the remarkable phenomena of recent music..

Although technical discussions are interesting to composers, I suspect that the truly magical and spiritual powers of music arise from deeper levels ….

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 re….

I frequently hear our present period described as uncertain, confused, chaotic..

I have observed, too, that the people of the many countries that I have visited are showing an ever increasing interest in the classical and traditio….

I am certain that most composers today would consider today's music to be rich, not to say confusing, in its enormous diversity of styles, technical ….

I pick up the New York Times or Time and it's talking about the latest rock group, which I'm sure is exciting to some people, but it neglects a huge ….

I believe that music surpasses even language in its power to mirror the innermost recesses of the human soul.

I must confess, my Spanish is not so good - except I read a little, so I started with the English but then determined that it would have to be in Spa….

The future will be the child of the past and the present, even if a rebellious child..