And a similar pragmatism is at the root of his philosophy of composing. In the 1950s, for example, when the new generation of internationalist Irish composers was beginning to experiment with twelve-note rows and serialism, Boydell was not among them. I believe that music arises from natural sound and is an extension of natural sound. The octave is not divided into twelve equal semitones in any natural way whatever. It's built on the harmonic system which you can't escape.
Every single note has a series of harmonics which have a relationship to each other.
Sound two notes together and a difference tone is produced which is your bass. And you can't get away from these natural phenomena. The thing, to me, is unnatural. In that way I was much more influenced by Hindemith. It's a very tricky area.