Meale in Mullumbimby - Richard Meale
[R.M.] “I write music continuously because I don’t see a composition clearly at the beginning, it’s always been an explorative experience. But if I’ve got any sort of attitude, it’s really that of letting anything happen, never to restrict a work, to realise that it can go in a different way than the way you are viewing it. That’s why I like to start at the beginning of the and work it trough, because then I can feel the momentum that is building up behind the piece which, of course, it’s form; the movement of the piece from one moment time to the next, I think, is what form really is.” p. 33
Non important for research, but important for professional life in general
[A.F.] “opera is about people, it requires a different kind of music.” p. 33
[R.M.] “It seems to me there’s no necessity to teach a student a particular style or technique in their student years. The best thing they can have is a broad experience and that is my philosophy of teaching. The only other form of teaching that I think is worthwhile is when you get a student to help you copy your work and I think Peter Sculthorpe’s been very right in doing that. I think that’s the way a student can see how a composer is working, actually see one in action. I didn’t do that except in the casa of Voss, because I was not really sure I should be foisting my musical ideas on to any student. But I’d do it now.” p. 34
[A.F.] “What about the associate polemic about complexity in music: ‘new complexity’ versus ‘new simplicity’ How does Meale stand on this debate?” p. 35
[R.M.] “Who cares? Who gives a bum? Music goes about its business despite all this and that’s why I say it’s only in the doing of it that music is of any significance. I’m living my life. I have no religious or spiritual belief in music, no sense that 'this is right’ or ‘we’re developing’ — pack of bulshit! You do certain things at certain times and that’s all there is to it. The music of Beethoven is as valid as the music of Xenakis — to put it perhaps the wrong way around.” p. 35