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Quote by Paul Lansky

“Very often, when you're listening to a piece for the first time, you're listening through a model of other pieces that you know. At a certain point, a piece becomes idiosyncratic and you start to understand it on its own terms.”

Quote by Paul Lansky

Author

Paul Lansky is a renowned musical composer, born on June 18, 1944. His works span a variety of musical styles, including electronic music, classical music, and jazz. Lansky's music is known for its innovation and experimental nature, having a profound impact on the contemporary music world. more

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“With a piece of classical music by Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven, on first listening I'm referencing it with other pieces by them that I know. I think that most people do this - they listen to pieces through the filter of pieces they already know.”

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“With repeated listenings, a piece eventually becomes its own being. I very often say to students that this is like meeting a person for the first time. When you first meet someone, you reference that person with others who are similar; but, as you get to know that person better, you begin to understand his unique qualities.”

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“I don't think of my music as being about something.”

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“I don't think there's something that you have to 'get' with my music. It tends toward the dramatic side rather than the narrative.”

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“I found myself recycling ideas and I saw that I had to invent reasons to compose a piece rather than start from some exciting idea.”

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“I had been creating music on tape that was to be listened to as a recording, rather than through performance.”

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“I came to what I think of as the critical problem: the aging process of a piece of music. I noticed in the '70s that pieces I wrote would sound great the first time I listened to them and then on repeated hearings they sounded older and older until what seemed exciting and vibrant on first listening became stale.”

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“I noticed things in my computer music that were getting old, and I started to figure out that this has to do with the way the listener interacts with music.”

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“I didn't want my music to be seen as examples of an electronic culture; I just wanted them to be thought of as pieces of music.”

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“When you have performers, there's the uniqueness of live performance and what performers do in concerts.”

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Author:Paul Lansky