45 Quotes by Harrison Birtwistle

I don't think there is much American music.

I wrote music as soon as I knew notation.

Music is such a problem in the time it takes.

The opera tells the story with all the built-in contradictions and from many different angles.

The theatre only knows what it's doing next week, not like the opera, where they say: What are we going to do in five years' time? A completely different attitude.

There are rhythmic ideas which sometimes only work up to a point. In writing there are moments when it just comes off the page, it's not just a collection of notes.

I think there are influences that you open the door to, and influences that come under the door.

Minimalism now is a reaction to what came before. It's absolutely of its time. Music moved into the set theory thing, and moved out of it.

In the end it doesn't matter what you do.