“The twelve-tone method of composition may be the result of historical necessity, but it presents some very dangerous aspects. The mathematical and geometric pursuit of sound apparent in this technique is purely an intellectual act. It can result in the same weaknesses as those that arise in any overspecialized aesthetic purity. It carries with it the danger of hardening perceptions, and it is the perceptions that are the basic elements in creativity. Of course we should have the courage to discover new systems and face new methods. But we should not forget that these things must be dealt with by human hands.

In the dim light of the subway I was conscious only of the rhythm of the train and its physical effect on me. I was thinking about music, or I should say more precisely I was thinking about sounds themselves quite apart from any obscure meaning or function in music.

Within an organized system sounds are bound and forced by mathematics and physics. Composers have been too steeped in techniques, trying to grasp sounds only through their function within the system. I believe, however, that the task of the composer should begin with the recognition and experience of the more basic sounds themselves rather than with concern about their function.
When I face the sun I sneeze. Is this really a silly comment, having nothing to do with music? And was it wrong of me to have felt a particular agony in the sound of the door someone closed?

The regular rhythm of the train coursed through our bodies, pounded inside our perspiring skins; and I and the others in the subway learned on this rhythm, receiving some kind of rest from it.

Music was born in primal utterance and action. But in our long history we have come to understand sounds only within the limitations of conventional function. The rich world of sound around me… those are the sounds I should have the courage to let live within my music. To reconcile those diverse, sometimes contradictory, sounds around us, that is the exercise we need in order to walk that magical and miraculous road we call life.
Sound is continuous, unbroken movement. If we understand it that way, conventional notation, which divides sound into discrete measures, is fruitless.”

excerpted from “A Personal Approach,” Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996), translated by Yoshiko Kakudo and Glenn Gasgow in Confronting Silence
bolded portions from Arthur Honegger (1892-1955), quoted by Takemitsu