Roger Reynolds Quotes

Well, I think that in fact my first contacts with Schoenberg's music were less important than slightly later ones. The fact was that Ross Lee Finney[10], my first composition teacher, had felt himself to have been a student of [Alban] Berg's[11]. He said that. Now the degree to which Berg actually influenced Ross' music is, I think, questionable. But at any rate, there was certainly, I think immediately, a predisposition in several ways that Ross manifested as a teacher and as a composer, and that was that what you could call, and we'll return to this I'm sure, what you could call principled behavior was a very good thing. Those are my words not Ross's.
Roger Reynolds

One common problem for young composers is that the music moves too rapidly. They have little sense of the amount of time that an idea needs in order not simply to be indicated but to be experienced. I've been saying all along that it's a totally different thing to offer an opportunity and to have an experience. I have a tendency to write rather long pieces. This isn't because I want to be grand. It's because, for me, music is about experience and time, and when you have a longer period of time there's a richer and more complex path that you can follow.
Roger Reynolds