The quotes below are statements from other composers I've found interesting for any number of reasons and a few random thoughts of my own as well. Any statements of mine are presented in italics. Statements from other composers are in standard font and credited to the individual.
Grants in the arts supposedly exist to aid in the completion of works that would not be realized without financial assistance. More often, a grant in composition only ensures that its recipient is able to live in a slightly better section of Ann Arbor or New Haven.
I believe a civilization that conserves is one that will decay because it is afraid of going forward and attributes more importance to memory than the future. The strongest civilizations are those without memory-those capable of complete forgetfulness. They are strong enough to destroy because they know they can replace what is destroyed. Today our musical civilization is not strong; it shows clear signs of withering…
The more I grow, the more I detach myself from other composers, not only from the distant past but also the present. Conducting has forced me to absorb a great deal of history, so much so, in fact, that history seems more than ever to me a great burden. In my opinion we must get rid of it once and for all. -Pierre Boulez
There's nothing as embarrassing as watching a composer live out his midlife crisis through postmodernism. Allow me to suggest that the mid-40s composer/pseudo rock stars put down the electric guitar and get a sports car or trophy wife like everyone else.
I dare suggest that the composer would do himself and his music an immediate and eventual service by total, resolute, and voluntary withdrawal from this public world to one of private performance and electronic media, with its very real possibility of complete elimination of the public and social aspects of musical composition. By so doing, the separation between the domains would be defined beyond any possibility of confusion of categories, and the composer would be free to pursue a private life of professional achievement, as opposed to a public life of unprofessional compromise and exhibitionism. -Milton Babbitt in The Composer as Specialist
During my days as a student, I walked into a restroom at the California Institute of the Arts and saw, spray painted above a urinal in large letters, the phrase, "Postmodernism is Dead!" I was simultaneously relieved in two ways.
We need not destroy the past; it is gone. -John Cage in A Year From Monday
In defense of the arts in California, I must point out to those in New York and other centers that the east coast of the United States is an incestuous breading ground for third-rate European music. Boston specifically is a retirement home for composers.
We cannot see that enormous apparatus of force that the modern orchestra represents without feeling the most profound and total disillusion at the paltry acoustic results. Do you know of any sight more ridiculous than that of twenty men furiously bent on redoubling the mewing of a violin? -Luigi Russolo in The Art of Noise
In a discussion with another composer, I stated my general disappointment with much of the contemporary music being written today. I was then asked to name any composers whose music I found interesting. I thus took the opportunity to name a few composers whose work I have found impressive in any number of ways. This composer, having not heard of the individuals I had mentioned, confirmed my generalizations by asking, "Oh, where do they teach?"
I don't write music for sissy ears. -Charles Ives
A performer who had not heard any of my music questioned me about several aspects of my work. On the topic of computer music, he had several technical questions and asked about the general process I employ in realizing a piece. I stated that I believed the specific technologies employed are unimportant but out of familiarity I generally write algorithms in C to generate my pieces. The performer responded, "Well, I don't know what you'd use an algorithm for but I'm glad to hear it's at least tonal."
There is little to be learned from professors. -Pierre Boulez
...neither to ask nor answer foolish questions...
Before a performance, I was having lunch with two other composers, one of whom brought up the topic of who will be seen as the greatest twentieth century composer. (It was early in the year 2001.) He began by stating that Schoenberg should be viewed as the greatest twentieth century composer. He then asked our companion for his input, who replied that he would choose Stravinsky. Both nodded as if either choice was acceptable and a difficult decision had been made. They then turned to me for my response. I stated that while I considered the question ridiculous, if I had to choose, I would say that Cage was the greatest composer of the twentieth century. They both looked somewhat shocked. The original poser of the question looked at me after a moment and said, "How can you possibly say Cage is the greatest composer of the century?" to which I replied, "Easily, I only wrote a couple pieces in the twentieth century."