olivier messiaen

• “the ancient musical modes lasted for ten centuries,
  tonal music only a few centuries, three centuries really.
  serial music lasted about fifty years.
  aleatory music should last for a few days.
  minimalism a couple of weeks.
  what will last longer, i believe, is electronic music, or electro-acoustic music.
  some composers do this, some don’t; i don’t - but even for me it has changed music. i cannot hear the orchestra in the same way, for instance, because of electro-acoustic music. it has not yet given us new masterpieces, but it has given us new timbres.”