Is there anything fundamentally unique about being an American composer?
Well, American composers are the best composers. At this time in the world, we are where the energy is. We are the most diverse, the most iconoclastic, the most maverick, and the most skillful. As far as I can see most of Europe is still locked in a kind of atonal vice. They’ve had very poor parents—if you think of Stockhausen, Boulez, Nono, all of these people die-hard hangers-on—whereas in America, we are just blown apart. We are all kinds of things. Minimalism, tonalisim, atonalisim, pop connected with contemporary music. It’s a vast cauldron that’s very alive. It reminds me of the early 20th century when so much was going on in Europe. It was diverse and exciting. Young composers now who come to me to study feel they can do anything. They are all very different. When I was a student you had to do pretty much atonal, or you weren’t acceptable. There was a lot of pressure, unspoken, like so many very effective pressures, but it operated. So this is a better time, and I think it’s pay
