If the work of art is to continue pursuing the vision of both being in and of the world but nevertheless in some fashion being more than just one mor…

- Brian Ferneyhough

If nothing is at risk, nothing is established.

- Brian Ferneyhough

When I speak of "cycles," I am referring to lengthy intervals of relative homogeneity, if not in the resolving of problems, than at least with respec…

- Brian Ferneyhough

Sometimes one can be so closely involved with things that the larger context is lost to view.

- Brian Ferneyhough

Questioning the nature and implications of liminal instances necessarily involves failure, if only in the specifically technical sense of entering sp…

- Brian Ferneyhough

The Western musical canon came about not merely by accumulation, but by opposition and subversion, both to the ruling powers on whom composers depend…

- Brian Ferneyhough

I don't like listening to my music, not even new pieces. Generally, they sound pretty much like I expected them to sound, so it's what I wanted, and …

- Brian Ferneyhough

In any case, the fewer boundaries that exist hindering free movement between all forms of articulate human cognition, the better.

- Brian Ferneyhough

When I left Europe in 1987 I did so with the thought that my relevance as a composition teacher would benefit from a certain cool distance to certain…

- Brian Ferneyhough