"The question of the role of the composer today has to be a question of his responsibility. I see this as being to preserve the concept of emphatic art from being rendered harmless and commercialised, to preserve it both in and from a society in which the majority has misunderstood and misused tradition to derive an idea of 'aesthetic enjoyment' as being a quick dose of magic available at the push of a button, thus putting art to the service of suppression and the propagation of a false sense of security."
 
Helmut Lachenmann
Contemporary Music Review 12/1