"Composers dialogue - and obsessively, bitterly argue - with other composers, often over the span of several centuries"
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Ferneyhough’s line reframes composition as less solitary inspiration than long-form combat sport. “Dialogue” gives you the polite version: a cultivated exchange across time, the conservatory fantasy of influences lovingly acknowledged. Then he yanks the mask off with “obsessively, bitterly argue,” a phrase that feels autobiographical in the best sense. For a composer associated with “New Complexity,” the point isn’t just that music has predecessors; it’s that every serious piece arrives with a chip on its shoulder, written against someone.
The syntax does a lot of work. The em dashes perform the very interruption he’s describing: conversation breaks into quarrel. “Obsessively” signals the pathological side of craft, the way a motif or technique can become a lifelong fixation. “Bitterly” adds stakes: not mere stylistic preference, but bruised identity, an anxiety of lineage. Composers don’t just borrow; they litigate. They contest what counts as beauty, rigor, progress, even what counts as music.
“Over the span of several centuries” is the quiet flex. Ferneyhough treats history as a living room argument where the dead won’t stop talking. That’s accurate to how Western art music is trained and policed: canon as courtroom, premieres as verdicts, program notes as briefs. The subtext is also defensive. If your work is accused of being difficult, you can reply: difficulty is a form of criticism, a way to push back at the accumulated habits of listening.
Intent-wise, he’s giving younger composers permission to hear tradition not as a shrine but as an opponent worth taking seriously.
The syntax does a lot of work. The em dashes perform the very interruption he’s describing: conversation breaks into quarrel. “Obsessively” signals the pathological side of craft, the way a motif or technique can become a lifelong fixation. “Bitterly” adds stakes: not mere stylistic preference, but bruised identity, an anxiety of lineage. Composers don’t just borrow; they litigate. They contest what counts as beauty, rigor, progress, even what counts as music.
“Over the span of several centuries” is the quiet flex. Ferneyhough treats history as a living room argument where the dead won’t stop talking. That’s accurate to how Western art music is trained and policed: canon as courtroom, premieres as verdicts, program notes as briefs. The subtext is also defensive. If your work is accused of being difficult, you can reply: difficulty is a form of criticism, a way to push back at the accumulated habits of listening.
Intent-wise, he’s giving younger composers permission to hear tradition not as a shrine but as an opponent worth taking seriously.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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