Yes, I get a report from BMI about the frequency of performances, and it is very surprising. They played one of my most advanced pieces, and one of my most unusual ones on the radio. Elliott Carter Read Quote
Why write for the orchestra? For one thing it’s a very challenging problem. Elliott Carter Read Quote
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. Elliott Carter Read Quote
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. Elliott Carter Read Quote
Aaron Copland was a man that had a very specific point of view about what music should be which was that, he felt that new music should have the composer should show a personality in his music. Elliott Carter Read Quote
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. Elliott Carter Read Quote
When I was in Paris, all of the German refugees began to flow in and it was a very sad time. Elliott Carter Read Quote
That was one of the big problems when I was at Harvard studying music. We had to write choral pieces in the style of Brahms or Mendelssohn, which was distressing because in the end you realized how good Brahms is, and how bad you are. Elliott Carter Read Quote
Well I tried to, but I could never write anything that I liked or was worthwhile. I threw it all out and realized that I had to make a serious study- that my tastes were far more advanced than my abilities. Elliott Carter Read Quote
