" ... I wrote a symphony called Symphonie gaspésienne which expressed ... Canada's east, that is, the province of Quebec, and this work [Altitude] represents Canada's west, that is, the Rocky Mountains. And [these are] the impressions that I received ... upon seeing the Rocky Mountains, the mystery ... and all those things that impress you profoundly and [that] I took in unconsciously, filtered through my consciousness and expressed [themselves] through music."
" ... I see the first part as the expression of Canada's primitive life ... less refined ... in a language ... such as the language of the Huron ... I fused that to a centre that I call a meditation, in which you listen to ... all the acoustic sensibilities in nature, the calm, and I returned to the modern world with the words of St. Francis of Assisi ... and at the end I have echoes with the choirs ... which again give you the immense thing that dominates you."