Jonathan Harvey Quotes

The vision of the whole is important. Think of Beethoven's Eroica symphony. In that first half second the whole symphony is there. Its a thing, a complex thing outside time. On the other hand music isn't really that logical. After all Bach could have written many different sequences on a given theme. But when its finished then one knows "that's it", everything is in place. It could not be in any other way.
Jonathan Harvey

Sometimes I use traditional forms, sometimes just being in the music. In my opera everything takes place after death, a state in which there are static states of being and purgatorial ones. So the two interact. In my music I'm concerned with the pathway whereas Arvoo Part and John Taverner are more concerned with stasis.
Jonathan Harvey