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Home
Authors
John Eaton
American
Politician
About the author
I think a lot of composers get into trouble just making up a plot and expecting an audience to follow that.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Trouble
#Composers
I think I was first to do live performances on a modern electronic sound synthesizer.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#First
#Sound
I think one of the greatest enemies in the use of technology, however, is the idea that if you use the technology you have to throw other things out of the window.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Technology
#Enemies
#Idea
I think the composer and production staff of an opera have a real responsibility to use visual elements of all kinds to make clear to the American audience, at any rate, exactly what is going on.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Responsibility
#American
#Production
#Opera
I'm thinking in terms of a point of departure, a field of action for performers to express an expressive need of mine which hopefully the context of music would convey.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Action
#Thinking
#Music
#Departure
If you look at the timing of many of the Greek dramas from the theatrical point of view, it's all off, and I think the reason for that is that music played a very important part.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Reason
#Music
It's not important to me to found a school; it's not important to me to have disciples.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#School
What's important for me is to communicate the vision that I have in sound with the audience that's hearing it.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Vision
#Hearing
#Sound
Well, the very best operas are the ones written by the very best composers.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Composers
Well, opera began with an intent to resuscitate Greek drama, that is, modern opera as we know it.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Drama
#Opera
Well, let me, first of all, say, that as a microtonal composer, I've never been much of a theorist.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#First
We need to open up the future. We also need to keep everything valuable from the past.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Past
#Open
#Future
We need to have as broad a range as possible, because life itself has that kind of range.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Life
We need it to capture the energy of contemporary life.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Life
#Energy
The way that I got involved with microtonal music was, frankly, through jazz.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Jazz
#Music
Nevertheless, one doesn't have time to think, oh, well, this is a quarter tone sharp, or flat.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Time
I want the audience to be so involved in the sweep of the music.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Want
#Music
However, yes, especially as one gets older, you know, you really hope that your music will become more generally available, even though some of the performances might be riddled with faults.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Hope
#Will
#Music
#Faults
I've just simply used what I've used because of the great, great expressive potential of it.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Potential
But nevertheless, it's music ultimately that matters in opera, and opera is a piece of music reaching out as a vision in sound reaching out to the world.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#World
#Vision
#Music
#Sound
#Opera
In other words, I think that if an audience listens to something as an experience of how in tune it is or something of that kind, that the whole point is somehow being missed, and the music has failed.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#Words
#Being
#Experience
#Music
I really write for people.
John Eaton,
American
Politician
#People