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Terry Riley Quotes

Composer

Terry Riley is an American composer known for his innovative musical style and pioneering use of electronic music. His works combine elements of jazz, Indian classical music, and electronic music, having a profound impact on subsequent musicians.

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All Kind Patterns Play Seems Able Acceleration Highest Humans Important Littles

Famous Terry Riley Quotes

“Acceleration is finite, I think, according to some laws of physics.”

Thinking Law Physics Finite Laws Of Physics Acceleration

Author:Terry Riley

“I had already done Rainbow in Curved Air and had a big record on CBS. I was launched to have a long career and then I just dropped out and went to India.”

Long Done Bigs Careers Records Air India Rainbow Long Careers

Author:Terry Riley

“Out of doing all that experimentation with sound I decided I wanted to do it with live musicians. To take repetition, take music fragments and make it live. Musicians would be able to play it and create this kind of abstract fabric of sound.”

Kind Play Would Be Able Wanted Sound Musician Decided Abstract Fabric Repetition Fragments Experimentation

Author:Terry Riley

“It seems like we are moving towards something, some kind of point and it is probably going to be an important point in our development or dissolution. That is what everybody seems to be thinking.”

Thinking Kind Important Seems Moving Development Dissolution

Author:Terry Riley

“The great thing about string quartets is the players are kind of like family. They work really well as a unit, so you can write things that let them use those talents of association and intuition-all the things they’ve developed together as a group.”

Writing Wells Kind Use Together Player Groups Talent Intuition Great Things Strings Association Units Quartets Like Family String Quartets

Author:Terry Riley

“I had always been more interested in playing and improvising than sitting down at a desk and writing out a piece. I'd always found it more fun to play, and the other a little bit tedious. I always had trouble with the decisions.”

Writing Littles Play Found Fun Bits Decision Pieces Trouble Little Bit Sitting Desks Tedious Sitting Down Improvising

Author:Terry Riley

“Everyone seems to be in a kind of accelerated time mode that is beyond their own control.”

Kind Seems

Author:Terry Riley

“I really didn't have a plan, I just went in and started playing. one of my specialties was to be able to play for a really long time without stopping and I would play these repeated patterns for hours and hours and I wouldn't seem to get tired.”

Long Play Seems Able Hours Plans Long Time Tired Patterns Stopping Really Long Specialty

Author:Terry Riley

“It is important that we are coming up on the millennium because what I am experiencing, just being one person out of billions, is the feeling of acceleration. I experience this through my contact with other people.”

People Persons Important Feelings Billions Contact Just Being Millennium Acceleration

Author:Terry Riley

“Talking about the all night concerts, I did some of the first all night concerts back in the 60's with this little harmonium, and I also had saxophone taped delays.”

Firsts Littles Night Talking Concerts Delay All Night Saxophone

Author:Terry Riley

“Well I guess my music came to prominence around one piece called 'In C' which I wrote in 1964 at that time it was called 'The Global Villages for Symphonic Pieces', because it was a piece built out of 53 simple patterns and the structure was new to music at that time.”

Wells Simple Pieces Built Structure Patterns Village One Piece Prominence Global Village

Author:Terry Riley

“Music can also be a sensual pleasure, like eating food or sex. But its highest vibration for me is that point of taking us to a real understanding of something in our nature which we can very rarely get at. It is a spiritual state of oneness.”

Real States Spiritual Sex Understanding Pleasure Eating Highest Oneness Sensual Vibrations Eating Food Sensual Pleasure

Author:Terry Riley

“The highest point of music for me is to become in a place where there is no desire, no craving, wanting to do anything else. It is the best place you have ever been, and yet there is nothing there.”

Desire Music Highest Craving Best Place

Author:Terry Riley

“It's not what happens to you in life that matters; what matters is how you deal with it!”

Matter Happens Deals What Matters

Author:Terry Riley

“Essentially my contribution was to introduce repetition into Western music as the main ingredient without any melody over it, without anything just repeated patterns, musical patterns.”

Western Musical Patterns Contribution Over It Melody Ingredients Introducing Repetition Gdp Western Music

Author:Terry Riley

“I was using tape loops for dancers and dance production. I had very funky primitive equipment, in fact technology wasn't very good no matter how much money you had.”

Matter Facts Technology Very Good Productions Dancer Tape Primitive Equipment Loops Funky

Author:Terry Riley

“We are either going to dissolve as a human race or we are going to break through into a new understanding of what it is to be a human being.”

Humans Understanding Human Beings Race Break Human Race Break Through

Author:Terry Riley

“The incredible thing about the human mind is that is didn't come with an instruction book.”

Mind Humans Book Incredibles Human Mind Instruction

Author:Terry Riley

About the Author

Born: June 24, 1935
Known for: Composer
Quotes: 18

Books & Sources

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