More than twenty years after publishing the interviews with eighty-two composers, I thought it would be revealing to approach them again to see whether the views they had expressed were still valid. In response, Helmut Lachenmann completely reworked his replies, turning them into a veritable essay; Henri Dutilleux made several alterations to the text; Boulez toned down the edges of his critical remarks regarding the music of Morton Feldman; and Wolfgang Rihm, Hans Werner Henze, and many others saw no need for revision. I had hoped that a second edition of the book could be brought out, also including younger composers who had emerged in the course of those two decades. Sadly, nothing came of that idea.

Kurtág received me in 1996 in the apartment he was renting in Grinzing, a picturesque suburb of Vienna: he was acting as the Konzerthaus's first composerin- residence with weekly master classes in the Schoenberg Hall of that prestigious institution.

In all those years, I was possessed by another idea as well. It had been triggered by a haphazard glance into the first volume of conversations between Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft. I had lighted on the page where the composer was asked if he could think of a graphic image that would represent his music. Craft drew a number of such images to show what he had in mind, representing the music of Bach, Webern, and others. In response, Stravinsky replied: “This is my music” and proceeded to draw what he considered to be its graphic representation.

I thought it would be fascinating to present a comprehensive survey of contemporary music in the world today through images provided by the composers.

A frantic correspondence ensued, which initially produced encouraging results. Wolfgang Rihm responded almost immediately and sent me three drawings, Kurtág sent three as well, Ligeti came to my office to draw the graphic representation of four of his creative periods. Dutilleux, Donatoni, Babbitt, Xenakis, Pärt, Furrer, and many others followed suit. Elliott Carter replied that while he could not draw, his music had a striking kinship to the art of Willem de Kooning. So instead of sending me a picture, he mailed a postcard with a reproduction of a painting by de Kooning.