Favourite musical quotes.

Norrdeth

Hey could everyone please post their favourite inspirational musical quotes, be them by composers, performers or theorists/critics.

I look forward to reading them,
Ben.

I'll begin with of of my favourites.......

"Music, like life itself, is inconceivable without romanticism. Romanticism is a high dream of the past, present, and future--a force of invincible beauty which towers above, and conquers, the forces of ignorance, bigotry, violence, and evil." - Giya Kancheli

rcaz

My one's in my signature,

Igor Stravinsky wrote:

Music must be listened to; it is not enough to hear it. A duck hears also.

Sinfonia

Not specifically about music, but:

"Beauty is at once the ultimate principle and the highest aim of art." - Goethe

The Mad Hatter

My two, which follow me everywhere:

"When I sat at my old, worm-eaten clavier, I envied no king his great fortune." -Joseph Haydn

and

"I believe in God, Mozart and Beethoven, and also in their disciples and apostles. I believe in a Day of Judgement, when all those who presume to make extortionate profits from such sublime, pure art, will be fearfully punished. I believe they will be forced to listen to their own music for all eternity." -Richard Wagner.

Doshea3

"Taste is a negative thing. Genius affirms and always affirms."—Franz Liszt.

"I was once a Chopinist, then a Wagnerist; now I am only a Scriabinist."—Alexander Scriabin.

"The aim and final reason...of the thorough-bass should be none else but the Glory of God..."—J.S. Bach.

(The last one for ironic reasons rather than religious ones...)

Norrdeth

"The artist is always searching for the meaning of life, his own and that of mankind, searching for truth. A system of uncertainty has entered our daily life. The pressures of mechanisation and uniformity to which it is subject call for protest and the artist has only one means of expressing this, by music." - Bohuslav Martinů

Said in an interview with Björk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pDjT1UNT3s
"You can kill people with sound, and if you can kill, then maybe there is also the sound which is something opposite of killing." - Arvo Pärt

"If a composer could say what he had to say in words, he would not bother trying to say it in music." - Gustav Mahler

and one of my favourites

"There is no theory. You merely have to listen. Pleasure is the law." - Claude Debussy

evolving_doors

" No Music
No Life "

Written on the inside of an accordian box from some old guy playing accordian on Sth Great George's St. Dublin

Norrdeth

Igor's great for the auld sigs, hehe

Igor Stravinsky wrote:

"I never am sea sick, never. I am sea drunk!" - Igor Stravinsky

minister poxbottle

music is only in the imagination of the imaginer frank zappa

rcaz

Norrdeth wrote: »

Said in an interview with Björk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pDjT1UNT3s
"You can kill people with sound, and if you can kill, then maybe there is also the sound which is something opposite of killing." - Arvo Pärt

That's a great one!

Oink

Miles Davis: "Hey, John, why don't you play shorter solos, man?"
Coltrane: "Miles, the music is so beautiful, I get carried away. I don't know how to stop."
Miles: "Have you tried taking the horn out of your mouth?"

Wisdom for the ages...:D

Norrdeth

Haha great, stoned genii!

Just found this one while looking up the composer Alexander Knaifel.

"Sound, to me, is what proves the existence of beauty. And beauty is the most important thing for me - it's a unique sort of energy." (Alexander Knayfel')

Found him on the 'A Place Between' CD from the Louth Contemporary Music Society. Amazing CD, I'd really recommend it to anyone with an interest in the recent 'spiritual minimalism' movement.

Reviews and info here.
http://www.louthcms.org/purchase-a-place-between-cd/a-place-between-reviews

It can be bought too in Tower (Wicklow street ^^) for a quite nifty price also.

Includes this Cage piece also and some premier recordings.

'Some schneer' - As my Dundalk mate would say!

gavitron22

Music is what feelings sound like - Unknown

Maestoso

El Pr0n wrote: »

My one's in my signature,

That's great! I've always felt people don't follow Igor's advice enough. I'll be quoting this to a lotttt of people.

dv868

El Pr0n wrote: »

That's a great one!

can you please tell me ,what is the name of the 'great one' thanks .

parabola_89

"A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence." - Leopold Stokowsk.

Kinda sums music up in general I think!