” My parents were so far from the music world that they couldn’t conceive how you could make a living. But for me, it was the only solution for the rest of my life. “
” I wanted contemporary music to be treated the same as the traditional repertoire – performed regularly by people who knew each other and the music. That is the way you convince an audience. “
” I almost chose the career of an ethnomusicologist because I was so fascinated by that music. It gives a different feeling of time. “
” People see me as a theoretician, but my music is also seductive, even spiritual. “
” The first time I came to New York in 1952, I was busy with music. I made the acquaintance at this period with John Cage, and also the acquaintance of Varese for the first time. We were very good friends. He gave me some scores, and we recorded them a little later. “
” ‘Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta’ is a kind of expansion of chamber music. “
” Webern was a kind of ‘Kamchatka of music,’ an unknown country of music. That’s true, for me and people of my generation, he was a radical – you couldn’t be more radical than he was. “
” Acting and performing music is exactly the same. Therefore, an actor, for instance, who is very impressive, he’s not simply imitating or trying to imitate, but he must dominate this kind of feeling, and then he transmits it in a much stronger way. “
” I always admired very much the virtuosity in Strauss because, really, he’s a master of using the orchestra. And I like virtuosity, I must say, even if the taste of the music is not always mine. “
” In business, in the music world, people know that I can be very friendly and warm but that, after a certain moment, the business is closed. I like to be alone: in order to concentrate on my work, the social life does not exist. It has never existed for me, really. I have chosen instead the working life because I prefer that. “
All 10 Pierre Boulez Quotes about Music in picture
Topics: Music quotes
