John Eaton
John Eaton
John Henry Eatonwas an American politician and diplomat from Tennessee who served as U.S. Senator and as Secretary of War in the administration of Andrew Jackson. He was 28 years old when he entered the Senate, making him the second-youngest U.S. Senator in history after Armistead Thomson Mason. Eaton resigned as Secretary of War as part of a strategy to resolve the Petticoat affair, a social scandal that involved Eaton and his wife, Peggy, and hindered the effectiveness of the...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth18 June 1790
CountryUnited States of America
It's not important to me to found a school; it's not important to me to have disciples.
Well, the very best operas are the ones written by the very best composers.
Well, let me, first of all, say, that as a microtonal composer, I've never been much of a theorist.
Nevertheless, one doesn't have time to think, oh, well, this is a quarter tone sharp, or flat.
I think one of the greatest enemies in the use of technology, however, is the idea that if you use the technology you have to throw other things out of the window.
But nevertheless, it's music ultimately that matters in opera, and opera is a piece of music reaching out as a vision in sound reaching out to the world.
We need to have as broad a range as possible, because life itself has that kind of range.
The way that I got involved with microtonal music was, frankly, through jazz.
I think a lot of composers get into trouble just making up a plot and expecting an audience to follow that.
We need to open up the future. We also need to keep everything valuable from the past.
Well, opera began with an intent to resuscitate Greek drama, that is, modern opera as we know it.
We need it to capture the energy of contemporary life.
At least for now the canyon is preserved.
So, to me, it's a question of not being afraid to embrace the tradition but also not being afraid to dive into boiling oil on occasion.