George crumb

I think we're in a very low point of music right now.

It is easy to write unthinking music.

I frequently hear our present period described as uncertain, confused, chaotic.

As interesting as that music can occasionally be, I don't think it really replaces the other.

Perhaps of all the most basic elements of music, rhythm most directly affects our central nervous system.

I have observed, too, that the people of the many countries that I have visited are showing an ever increasing interest in the classical and traditional music of their own cultures.

Perhaps many of the perplexing problems of the new music could be put into a new light if we were to reintroduce the ancient idea of music being a reflection of nature.

In a broader sense, the rhythms of nature, large and small - the sounds of wind and water, the sounds of birds and insects - must inevitably find their analogues in music.

If we look at music history closely, it is not difficult to isolate certain elements of great potency which were to nourish the art of music for decades, if not centuries.

This is not a happy time for this kind of music in this country.