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I have a tendency to postpone starting a piece until it's kicked around in my head a little bit.

I want to know exactly how the first few measures are going to go, and the rough shape of a movement or the whole piece and its essential character.

From Steven Stucky

It's not possible to build a piece that stands successfully without talking about its shape. But if you talk too much, you lead people away from the music itself.

From Steven Stucky

Whatever the raw material, the material itself is unimportant until it's catalyzed by emotional fervor. So in the ideal exchange between me and my listeners, they wouldn't 'figure out' my music. They would feel their pulse racing and the hair standing up on the backs of their necks.

From Steven Stucky

We all need strategies for facing unknown repertory.

From Steven Stucky

To some extent, I'm mildly surprised by every new piece, by the precise path that my interest takes.

From Steven Stucky

The general direction seems to be becoming fairly clear to me, but every new piece is a small adventure.

From Steven Stucky

The only way for me to compose is intensively. To pick at it over a long period doesn't seem to work.

From Steven Stucky

I find composition difficult. I never thought of myself as someone who can crank it out. I can't crank it out - I have to dig it out the hard way. In some sense, you become more confident in your technical apparatus, but it becomes harder to do something you haven't done already.

From Steven Stucky

One kind of artist is always striving to annihilate the past, to make the world anew in each new work, and so to triumph over the dead weight of routine. I am the other kind... who only sees his way forward by standing on the shoulders of those who have already cleared the path ahead.

From Steven Stucky

Steven Stucky

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