Talking about a materialistic thing, I get about 13 times more royalties from Europe than I do from America.

I mean the public likes it more in Europe than they do here because the state supported organizations have felt that playing contemporary music was part of the education of the public.

Why write for the orchestra? For one thing it's a very challenging problem.

Well I tried to, but I could never write anything that I liked or was worthwhile. I threw it all out and realized that I had to make a serious study- that my tastes were far more advanced than my abilities.

I've known those pieces ever since I was about 16 or 17; I also at that time was taken to meet Charles Ives whom I got to know fairly well. He was the one who wrote a recommendation for me to get into college.

These wealthy people were very interested in contemporary music. They wanted to help diffuse it and get it to be known to other people.