Hildegard von Bingen conveys spiritual ecstasy, if we're talking of Western music. What bothers me about Western music is that it doesn't have an esoteric dimension in the way the music of the East has, whether it be Byzantine chant,… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
I don't think Beethoven expresses religious truth. He expresses a human truth. — John Tavener Copy Share Image
When I talk of primordial innocence, I hear it in Sufi music with the nay flute. I see it in Coptic icons, in most… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
I've got great joy from rediscovering Western music. I love Schumann and Chopin, and those amazing symphonies of Bruckner. — John Tavener Copy Share Image
The path I follow is still an Orthodox path. You have to follow a path; otherwise, it becomes a little bit new-age, a bit… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
The thing I regret most about my life are those inane photos of me with icons. They used to come down here and dress… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
We seem to have lost our contact with the primordial: the idea of - call it divine revelation as opposed to something that's learned… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
I think I've been very lucky all my life because the writing and the faith seem to go together. — John Tavener Copy Share Image
My consultant keeps telling me sudden death could come at any moment. — John Tavener Copy Share Image
Every woman I have known has actually deepened my spiritual awareness. Even if I have been a selfish man and treated them badly... There… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
The music is something outside myself that's also inside myself... Music and a sense of another presence always went hand in hand. Even when… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
In his late quartets, Beethoven introduces an element that shouldn't be there, that should be left for meditation, though I love them. I can… — John Tavener Copy Share Image
