The one obvious thing is that the devices are so good now that you can also see their limitations extremely well.

All the music we know that's popular is actually commonly shared music that takes things that are similar about all of us.

I did take composition lessons when I was in high school, so I wrote piano pieces. I wrote some chamber music. I don't think any of that was particularly interesting.

Why does every society seem to want to make music when it often seems like kind of a frill.

I like the idea of imagining a sound and feeling a sound and then having it come out through your body, through an instrument. That's an important way to make music.

The English learned, in my view, how to use harmony much earlier than the French or the Italians, or the Germans.

I never liked opera growing up. I always liked chamber music or solo music even more than orchestral music.