I can imagine myself as an old man writing music for choir or orchestra. I don’t know that I’ll be touring six months out of the year in a rock band when I’m 60. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
When I’m scoring something like a string quartet, it’s all notated music, so it’s meticulously written in the score, which is very different than doing things by ear. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
When I’m writing for certain instruments, you want to write within what you know about that instrument but also challenge the player. Something like ‘Aheym’ is very virtuosic – but because I have a history of performing music, I don’t like unplayable music. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
The thing I realised about composition is, we remember most composers for four bars of music. Four singable bars of music. Pretty much any major composer from Debussy to Ravel to Mozart to whoever else – you can kind of hum it. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
As a pop musician, as someone who makes songs, the best ideas are the simplest. They come, and that’s the lightning bolt moment. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
It doesn’t necessarily take four years to write a good piece of music. It might take four hours. It just depends on when your inspiration comes. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
I love the physicality of instruments, and instruments as objects, like dancers are bodies. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
Playing pentatonic scales over orchestral music is not something I want to do or listen to. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
