Why write for the orchestra? For one thing it's a very challenging problem.

- Elliott Carter

Since I'm allergic to various things, the army wouldn't accept me during the war, and I got into the Office of War Information, which sent music to E…

- Elliott Carter

That was one of the big problems when I was at Harvard studying music. We had to write choral pieces in the style of Brahms or Mendelssohn, which was…

- Elliott Carter

When people listen to my music, I hope that they will notice that if you take a piece by a composer like Schubert, the major and the minor triad is a…

- Elliott Carter

When I was in Paris, all of the German refugees began to flow in and it was a very sad time.

- Elliott Carter

Yes, I get a report from BMI about the frequency of performances, and it is very surprising. They played one of my most advanced pieces, and one of m…

- Elliott Carter

Silences between movements are employed only in order to bring the opposing duo to the fore.

- Elliott Carter

Aaron Copland was a man that had a very specific point of view about what music should be which was that, he felt that new music should have the comp…

- Elliott Carter

My musical life started with hearing and being fascinated by contemporary music.

- Elliott Carter