Occupation: Film Score Composer Birth: January 31, 1937
I shift between mediums very frequently. Instead of taking a break from writing, I just write in a different medium or in a different way or for a di….
So the real drama for me is balancing live performances and writing, and one of the ways I balance it is I write in hotel rooms. That's not exactly b….
I don't know that I make a big distinction between the big pieces and the little pieces, because I don't experience them in that way. I mean, by the ….
I travel the world, and I'm happy to say that America is still the great melting pot - maybe a chunky stew rather than a melting pot at this point, b….
The generation of composers that are just preceded me, people like [Karlheinz] Stockhausen, [Pierre] Boulez, and, well, [John] Cage for that matter,[….
What I've noticed is that people who love what they do, regardless of what that might be, tend to live longer..
I've been working in theater, really, since about 1965. I started working with the Mabou Mines about then, and in a way I've always worked in the the….
The hardest thing about traveling is that mostly you get to a point - and it always happens on every tour - where you can choose between eating and s….
What came to me as a revelation was the use of rhythm in developing an overall structure in music..
I like the idea that [Mahatma] Gandhi is appearing now in an opera hall in all these different places, and people kind of think about it again..
I think I'm really part of a whole generational movement in a way. I think a lot of other people since and during this time have gotten interested in….
In order to arrive at a personal style, you have to have a technique to begin with..
Satyagraha is an opera which I wrote for the Netherlands Opera, so it uses an orchestra of around fifty, a chorus of forty, and there are about seven….
I'm interested in what happens to music when other people use it. Whereas there are composers who don't like anyone to touch their music, I think peo….
The problem with listening, of course, is that we don't. There's too much noise going on in our heads, so we never hear anything. The inner conversat….
What you hear depends on how you focus your ear. We're not talking about inventing a new language, but rather inventing new perceptions of existing l….
I'd say the differences are more interesting than the similarities at this point. Certainly no one would ever mistake my music for Steve's [ Reich]..
You get up early in the morning and you work all day. That’s the only secret..
There's almost no content in terms of language at all. I don't like using language to convey meaning. I'd rather use images and music..
You practice and you get better. It's very simple..
A new language requires a new technique. If what you're saying doesn't require a new language, then what you're saying probably isn't new..