A New Language Requires A New Technique.

I Was A Regular Kind Of Academic Music Student. I Was At Juilliard. I Had To Study All The Contemporary Music Of The Time, And Changing That Language Very Radically Was Just A Sign Or A Signal That I Was Going To Try To Do Something Very Different. I Find That That's What I Feel Closest To. I Found No Real Inner Response In Me In A Non-tonal Language.

What Came To Me As A Revelation Was The Use Of Rhythm In Developing An Overall Structure In Music.

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 Same Token, You're Out Touring With A Band And Then You're Writing String Quartets, And In A Funny Way, Isn't It All The Same, In A Way? It's All Just Music.

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.

My Biggest Problem About Writing Is Whenever I Write Piano Pieces, Because I Then Have To Learn To Play Them, Which Is Sometimes Not So Easy.