34 Quotes by Elliott Carter

The first thing that struck me about contemporary music in general had been thatthere was not much interest in rhythm.

The Third Quartet I made the instruments in pairs – Two different pairs – Violin and viola, and violin and cello. They played very different things from each other all through the whole piece.

My entire life has really revolved around music that was written about the time that I was born, 1908, to just before the First World War and shortly after it. This music I’ve always known, and it is that music that’s most important to me.

Well when I was young, when I was very young, when I was a little boy I don’t remember the music I heard, but there was an article in the Brooklyn Daily written by my Aunt about how I could choose phonograph records.

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 Europe.

Right at the end of the war I wrote a piano sonata, which was written at a time when Sam Barber used to come down here and we used to have lunch together in a very nice old hotel that’s now not there.

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