Quotes About Composition

When Philip Glass asked me if I would be interested in doing a new recording of Jesus' Blood he assumed that I would do something similar to the first version and wanted to know what other pieces would be on the same CD.

In writing, authors use modes to make meaning and clarity.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," which, Mr. Holcombe pointed out, contained every letter in the alphabet. I checked, and he turned out to be right.

I still do not know where the notes will come from when I accept a commission for a new work.

A number of poems don't work alone. They need to fit together to work.

Part of the work of writing a novel is to uncover the symmetries or connections that make it whole, which might not reveal itself at first.

A poet's work consists less in seeking words for his ideas than in seeking ideas for his words and predominant rhythms.

I don't think about, "How does this song that has more of an electronic mix prefix to a song that has a full orchestra next to a song that has other things?" I just work on it as-needed.

So many good songs get written fast, because you know exactly what has to work.

I tend to work in layers. There's a huge orchestra in the film, but I also record a lot things with very intimate groups, and I like to be able to use the textures of those intimate groups.

My little notebooks were beginnings - they were the ground into which I dropped the seed... I would work in this way when I was out in the crowds, then put the stuff together at home.

I hate it when I'm reading a comic, and the dialogue looks like stickers stuck on top to explain what's going on. For me the best is when your eye goes in a certain point and moves through the composition and then springs out on the dialogue, or gets confused in the image and then goes to the dialogue for an explanation.

As any competent student of literary composition knows, the more natural and casual a voice sounds in print, the more likely it is to have been edited time and again.

I studied with Felix Blumenfeld, who had studied piano with Anton Rubinstein and composition with Tchaikovsky. Felix, my professor, was the right hand of Anton Rubinstein. Blumenfeld knew his playing by heart, from every angle.

I normally write on acoustic guitar, although piano is the instrument that I actually studied. Occasionally, I'll write on the piano or sometimes with no instrument at all.

I studied harmony and composition in a very spontaneous manner.

Layering in different patterns will keep things from appearing too studied.

I studied classical guitar in school, and that type of stuff has led to writing for Kronos.

I don't know the names of any pop musicians. Pop music is standardised; it's made to please the largest audience possible. I also compose to please a large audience, but when you listen to my music, you understand that I have studied and applied the whole history of composition.

I started playing piano when I was eight, and I went on to study piano in school, so I have a background in classical piano and studied composition in school. Writing music came later.

'Close To The Edge,' we actually had played it from beginning to end before we recorded it in the studio. So we knew how long it was, and we knew it would fit on the album fine, so we didn't do any editing.

I like to explore a lot of textural, arrangement aspects in the studio.

When I am composing in a studio, I cannot gauge what the audience feels. Sometimes, good songs don't get the recognition because the films fail. But when you are performing live, the reaction is immediate.

The studio is not the place to write. You need to be 75% ready when you go into the studio, and then the music can develop to the next stage.