Welcome to a collection of profound insights and thought-provoking reflections by one of contemporary music’s most innovative minds, Max Richter. As a composer renowned for his unique blend of classical, electronic, and minimalist influences, Richter’s words carry a depth that resonates far beyond the realm of music. Through his compositions, he explores the intersection of emotion, memory, and human experience, inviting listeners on journeys of introspection and contemplation.
Within these pages, you’ll discover a treasure trove of Max Richter’s quotes, each offering a glimpse into his creative process, philosophical musings, and insights into the nature of art and existence. Whether you’re an aspiring musician, a seasoned artist, or simply someone seeking inspiration in their daily life, Richter’s words are sure to ignite your imagination and spark new perspectives. Explore his wisdom, ponder his observations, and allow his eloquence to accompany you on your own creative endeavors and personal explorations. For in the words of Max Richter, true artistry lies not only in the creation of music but also in the shared experience of its meaning and resonance. Now, without further ado, immerse yourself in the wisdom of Max Richter.
I just really try to stay focused on what the material is wanting to do. My basic assumption is that no one will ever listen to it anyway. It’s fidelity to the material. That’s my contract: It’s me and the material. And if it connects with other people, I’m thrilled. Max Richter
When you’re working in cinema, you often have a very, very compressed schedule – very few weeks to just kind of go through that whole process of reflection and refining – and it has to be done. Max Richter
‘Black Mirror’ obviously has its own universe, with a very strong fingerprint and strong themes, and I was intrigued on reading. It’s such a powerful piece of storytelling. Max Richter
We’ve all got stories to tell that no one else knows. We’ve all got this truly unique experience of being. So I would say cultivate that, because then also you’re cultivating something which is very natural to you. Max Richter
When I was a student, if you accidentally wrote a triad in a piece of yours, it was just sort of like you were breaking the law! You just couldn’t do it. And that just meant you were a bad composer. Max Richter
When I was a kid, there were really only two possible futures in the foreground, which were Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’. Max Richter
When we go to sleep ordinarily, we’re doing something really private. It’s kind of an intimate, private connection with our sort of physical humanity. Max Richter
There’s different ways to approach music for sleeping. Things like white noise are functional, like a lullaby. This is more like an inquiry, a question about how music and sleep fit together. Max Richter
I was living in a suburban town north of London, dutifully practicing my Mozart sonatas. And the milkman who delivered the milk in the mornings was kind of milkman by day, composer-artist by night. Max Richter
Sleeping and being asleep is one of my favorite activities. Really, what I wanted to do is provide a landscape or a musical place where people could fall asleep. Max Richter
We’re living in our neoliberal, sort of late-stage capitalist culture where human beings are really like objects of production and consumption. We’re on our screens all the time; we’re kind of being sold at all the time. Max Richter
The thing that makes me want to write a piece of music is having something to talk about, you know? Something I want to get across. Because I’m a composer, music is my first language, and that’s what I reach for when I want to convey something. Max Richter
I don’t have synesthesia, but I think when music is really intense, it’s almost like it’s more than just hearing. If you’re at a gig, and there’s just something amazing going on, it’s not really just hearing: it’s more of a total body sense, isn’t it? You get transported, and all your senses kind of join up. Max Richter
Often, especially young artists, you feel like you should be doing something. And I think that can be very destructive because creativity is about connecting with the stuff that’s deep inside you and making something out of that. Max Richter
All music is just a collision of sounds until you know its internal conventions and understand the nuances. It’s a question of familiarity. Max Richter
‘Sleep’ is a project I’ve been thinking about for many years. It just seems like society has been moving more and more in a direction where we needed it. Our psychological space is being increasingly populated by data. And we expend an enormous amount of energy curating data. Max Richter
We’re chronically sleep-deprived as a culture. We’re constantly on. Max Richter
I assumed no one would ever listen to my music, and for quite a lot of years, I was right. Max Richter
People have written about ‘Sleep’ as if it were some kind of record attempt, but I could just put repeat marks at the end, and it would be 16 hours. It’s not about that. Max Richter
In Germany, people feel like they own classical music, that it is somehow theirs. Over there, everyone still learns to play, and the great composers don’t seem alien. Max Richter
I can’t usually sleep if I’m listening to music. It seems to fire up my mind, and I keep engaging with it to see what it’s doing. Max Richter
We tend to think that when we’re awake, we’re on, and when we’re sleeping our mind is off, but actually, we’re not off. There’s a lot going on! Max Richter
‘Memoryhouse’ came out, and there wasn’t a single review and zero sales, and after about a year, it was deleted. So I recorded The ‘Blue Notebooks’ on a little indie label, and my attitude was, ‘Well, if nobody is listening, I might as well keep doing what I’m doing’. Max Richter
That childhood passion and involvement and being really submerged in something, that’s the kind of state I’m looking for all the time – and preserving that sense of magical possibility and wonder that children have. I think, for artists, if you can stay connected to that, then you are in a good place. Max Richter
Traditional methods for falling asleep work. Non-taxing, repetitive mental tasks have a lulling effect, and I built those patterns into ‘Sleep’. Max Richter
It feels like when novelists say they find their characters are doing things they never thought they’d do, the material comes alive, and that’s how I feel making music. Max Richter
If somebody says, ‘Well, what are your favorite composers?’ really, what they are saying is, ‘What are your favorite composers apart from Bach?’ Because obviously, Bach is your favorite composer if you are involved in music at all. Max Richter
When I got the call about ‘Arrival,’ I was doubtful because the piece had had a life on cinema already, and we were getting to the point where the original context was sort of lost, and I didn’t want that to happen. On the other hand, ‘Arrival’ itself is a political film because it’s about unification and getting beyond boundaries. Max Richter
You can get away with a lot more in a film or television score. It is contextual. Max Richter
‘Spring One’ probably has only four bars of Vivaldi in it, but it feels like it’s all Vivaldi. It’s odd. It’s a bit like walking around a sculpture, you just sort of see it from a different angle. Max Richter
Sleep is probably my favorite activity. I wrote this piece out of gratitude that I’m able to sleep well as an offering to people who don’t. Max Richter
I’m suspicious of the idea of categories in music and this idea of things being in boxes. To me, that seems unnatural. I write the music that somebody with my biography would write, and the thing that’s always driven me is an enthusiasm for the material. I sort of follow the notes to where they want to go. Max Richter
It’s a liminal thing, humming, And I’m always interested in liminal things. Max Richter
I lived in Scotland a long time, and I became aware of Mogwai really from the beginning. They seemed to be fusing hard music structure and sort of raw sonics. They’re just very creative thinkers, musical thinkers. Max Richter
When you make a piece, one of the interesting things is hearing what other people think about it. Max Richter
When I’m working with pictures, with images and storytelling, it’s really about the sentiment and the emotional trajectory of the characters. That’s really where the music lives, I think. That’s what I’m focused on; that’s what I respond to most strongly. Max Richter
I came from a Conservatoire background where the idea of complexity was very much bound up with good music – good music was seen as complex and difficult to understand. Max Richter
I think, as human beings, we all have a fundamental mode, a basic way of relating to the rest of reality, and for me, it’s always instinctively been about sound making and trying to extract information, grammar, meaning from sound making. That’s been my way of navigating reality that’s very personal; a painter might say they make marks or look. Max Richter
It’s true that many of the best-known composers were German or Austrian, but we should remember how good the music tradition is in Britain, too, because it has an informality and a fluidity that should really be celebrated. Max Richter