My musical life started with hearing and being fascinated by contemporary music.

Why write for the orchestra? For one thing it's a very challenging problem.

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.

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.

My entire life has really revolved around music that was written about the time that I was born, 1908, to just before the First World War and shortly after it. This music I've always known, and it is that music that's most important to me.

Almost every one of my various zero numbered birthdays has had a big concert in London and often in Paris.

When I was in Paris, all of the German refugees began to flow in and it was a very sad time.