I've had little success in intellectual circles. I'm not talked about in the 'New York Review of Books,' and I was never part of the Stravinsky 'inner circle.'
— Samuel Barber
I think that what's been holding composers back a great deal is that they feel they must have a new style every year. This, in my case, would be hopeless. In fact, it is said that I have no style at all, but that doesn't matter. I just go on doing, as they say, my thing. I believe this takes a certain courage.
I was 7 years old when I began composing. I began composing, improvising at the piano, the usual story.
I was supposed to be a doctor. I was supposed to go to Princeton. And everything I was supposed to do I didn't.
As for my own music, I've never written a book about it. I'm not pedagogical... When I write an abstract piano sonata or a concerto, I write what I feel. I'm not a self-conscious composer.
I can only say that I myself wrote always as I wished, without a tremendous desire to find the latest thing possible.
I guess, for better or for worse, I am an American composer, and I've had a wonderful life being exactly that.
There's no reason music should be difficult for an audience to understand.
I was meant to be a composer and will be I'm sure. Don't ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football - please.
