ABSTRACT
The malleable and elastic nature of natural sound sources appealed to me as did the remarkable transformations made possible by the tape recorder and associated equipment. The opportunities and difficulties presented by instrumental composition and electro-acoustic music were quite different ones. When composing instrumental music I was continually beset by the question of originality. What had I to say that had not been said more eloquently by others? By contrast, the world of electroacoustic music was devoid of precedents; I need only choose those sounds and structures that appealed to me. The 1960s was a time quite different from our own with respect to artistic values. The chimerical climate of the avant-garde was still prevalent and more and more listeners were willing to stretch their conceptions of what music could be.
