John Corigliano Quotes

• If you take a violin, you can make it sound 50 different ways. Not just pizzicato and played by the bow, but ponticello, and harmonics, and tremolos. If you take an oboe and play it, there's about one way you can make it sound: like an oboe.

  John Corigliano

  Play, Sound, Oboes

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• Jazz is not the popular culture. Jazz is in the same position in our culture as classical music. A very small minority of people really love it.

  John Corigliano

  People, Culture, Minorities

  "The Gospel According To John Corigliano". Interview with Frank J. Oteri, www.newmusicbox.org. February 01, 2005.

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• You become a great composer when you win a Pulitzer. But I think that now it's a completely meaningless award.

  John Corigliano

  Winning, Thinking, Awards

  "The Gospel According To John Corigliano". Interview with Frank J. Oteri, www.newmusicbox.org. February 1, 2005.

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• The French Revolution is the ultimate modernist statement. Destroy everything. Don't build on the past. There is no past.

  John Corigliano

  Past, Revolution, Ultimate

  "The Gospel According To John Corigliano". Interview with Frank J. Oteri, www.newmusicbox.org. February 1, 2005.

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• Art is not only about angst.

  John Corigliano

  Art, Angst, Art Is

  "The Gospel According To John Corigliano". Interview with Frank J. Oteri, www.newmusicbox.org. February 1, 2005.

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• The structural thinking I use in the concert hall is unnecessary to most film projects, and most film composers make better use of the enormous range of pop and other materials and techniques required of them than I probably would, faced with the same challenge.

  John Corigliano

  Thinking, Challenges, Technique

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• What I think of as style - and I've gotten to this over years of really thinking about it - is that style is the unconscious choices I make.

  John Corigliano

  Thinking, Years, Choices

  "The Gospel According To John Corigliano". Interview with Frank J. Oteri, www.newmusicbox.org. February 01, 2005.

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• I have tremendous respect for film composers.

  John Corigliano

  Film, Composer, Film Composers

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• I find respect for a mediocre British composer, as opposed to a really good American, ridiculous because they automatically respect a composer if he's from England.

  John Corigliano

  England, Ridiculous, British

  "The Gospel According To John Corigliano". Interview with Frank J. Oteri, www.newmusicbox.org. February 1, 2005.

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• Eighty percent of my pieces gravitate towards an A, as a tonal thing, not at the beginning, but somewhere in it.

  John Corigliano

  Pieces, Percent, Eighty

  "The Gospel According To John Corigliano". Interview with Frank J. Oteri, www.newmusicbox.org. February 1, 2005.

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• I think it's good for the composer to teach because you always have new students and you have to begin at the beginning and make things clear.

  John Corigliano

  Thinking, Students, Composer

  "The Gospel According To John Corigliano". Interview with Frank J. Oteri, www.newmusicbox.org. February 01, 2005.

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• I'm glad I won it because when I grew up the Pulitzer was the award that every composer wanted and I was like that too.

  John Corigliano

  Awards, Grew Up, Composer

  "The Gospel According To John Corigliano". Interview with Frank J. Oteri, www.newmusicbox.org. February 1, 2005.

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• I always conceive a piece as a different set of challenges.

  John Corigliano

  Challenges, Different, Pieces

  "The Gospel According To John Corigliano". Interview with Frank J. Oteri, www.newmusicbox.org. February 1, 2005.

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• I think art can reflect tragedy.

  John Corigliano

  Art, Thinking, Tragedy

  "The Gospel According To John Corigliano". Interview with Frank J. Oteri, www.newmusicbox.org. February 1, 2005.

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• I don't think that the Pulitzer should be given the way it is. I think the competition should be anonymous. I think completely different people would win it if the names were taken off because a lot of it is done on relationships and names.

  John Corigliano

  Taken, Thinking, Winning

  "The Gospel According To John Corigliano". Interview with Frank J. Oteri, www.newmusicbox.org. February 1, 2005.

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