"We can use techniques in modifying things, in controlling things, but the first impulse has to be something that you simply cannot make just out of technique, or else it becomes perfectly evident that it is nothing but technique that you're exercising"
About this Quote
The key word is "impulse". He isn't romanticizing sloppiness or improvisation; he's defending a pre-technical urgency, the kind that arrives before you can justify it. Ornstein's subtext is that audiences and performers can sense when a work is built backward, when the concept, method, or virtuosity is the point rather than the carrier. "Perfectly evident" is the sting: technique loves to imagine itself invisible, but it has a tell. Overdetermined structure, conspicuous cleverness, surfaces polished past the grain.
Context matters here. Ornstein was celebrated early for radical piano writing, then receded from the public scene as musical discourse hardened around competing orthodoxies. That long perspective lends the quote its calm severity: he isn't railing against technique, he's demoting it. The intent is almost ethical - make something because you must, then use every tool you have to articulate it. Otherwise you're not composing; you're demonstrating.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Ornstein, Leo. (2026, January 17). We can use techniques in modifying things, in controlling things, but the first impulse has to be something that you simply cannot make just out of technique, or else it becomes perfectly evident that it is nothing but technique that you're exercising. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-can-use-techniques-in-modifying-things-in-62449/
Chicago Style
Ornstein, Leo. "We can use techniques in modifying things, in controlling things, but the first impulse has to be something that you simply cannot make just out of technique, or else it becomes perfectly evident that it is nothing but technique that you're exercising." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-can-use-techniques-in-modifying-things-in-62449/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"We can use techniques in modifying things, in controlling things, but the first impulse has to be something that you simply cannot make just out of technique, or else it becomes perfectly evident that it is nothing but technique that you're exercising." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-can-use-techniques-in-modifying-things-in-62449/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
