George Crumb Quotes

• If we look at music history closely, it is not difficult to isolate certain elements of great potency which were to nourish the art of music for decades, if not centuries.

  George Crumb

  Art, Looks, Elements

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• I believe that music surpasses even language in its power to mirror the innermost recesses of the human soul

  George Crumb

  Believe, Mirrors, Soul

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• Music might be defined as a system of proportions in the service of a spiritual impulse

  George Crumb

  Spiritual, Might, Proportion

  William James McGee, George Crumb (1982). “An expanded concept of timbre and its structural significance: with a timbral analysis of George Crumb's Night of the four moons”

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• The rhythms of nature - the sounds of wind and water, the sounds of birds and insects - must inevitably find their analogues in music.

  George Crumb

  Wind, Water, Bird

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• It is easy to write unthinking music.

  George Crumb

  Writing, Easy

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• I must confess, my Spanish is not so good - except I read a little, so I started with the English but then determined that it would have to be in Spanish.

  George Crumb

  Littles, Determined

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• Writing seems to be more difficult as you move through the years.

  George Crumb

  Moving, Writing, Years

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• I am certain that most composers today would consider today's music to be rich, not to say confusing, in its enormous diversity of styles, technical procedures, and systems of esthetics.

  George Crumb

  Diversity, Confusing, Style

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• Perhaps many of the perplexing problems of the new music could be put into a new light if we were to reintroduce the ancient idea of music being a reflection of nature.

  George Crumb

  Reflection, Light, Ideas

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• I am optimistic about the future of music.

  George Crumb

  Optimistic

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• Although technical discussions are interesting to composers, I suspect that the truly magical and spiritual powers of music arise from deeper levels of our psyche.

  George Crumb

  Spiritual, Interesting, Levels

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• Nonetheless, I sense that it will be the task of the future to somehow synthesize the sheer diversity of our present resources into a more organic and well-ordered procedure.

  George Crumb

  Diversity, Tasks, Resources

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• Perhaps two million years ago the creatures of a planet in some remote galaxy faced a musical crisis similar to that which we earthly composers face today.

  George Crumb

  Years, Two, Musical

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• Perhaps of all the most basic elements of music, rhythm most directly affects our central nervous system.

  George Crumb

  Elements, Nervous, Rhythm

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• I pick up the New York Times or Time and it's talking about the latest rock group, which I'm sure is exciting to some people, but it neglects a huge area of music.

  George Crumb

  New York, Rocks, Talking

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• The development of new instrumental and vocal idioms has been one of the remarkable phenomena of recent music.

  George Crumb

  Development, Instrumental Music, Remarkable

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• Unquestionably, our contemporary world of music is far richer, in a sense, than earlier periods, due to the historical and geographical extensions of culture to which I have referred.

  George Crumb

  Historical, Culture, World

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• One very important aspect of our contemporary musical culture - some might say the supremely important aspect - is its extension in the historical and geographical senses to a degree unknown in the past.

  George Crumb

  Past, Historical, Musical

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• The future will be the child of the past and the present, even if a rebellious child.

  George Crumb

  Children, Past, Rebellious

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• The advent of electronically synthesized sound after World War II has unquestionably had enormous influence on music in general.

  George Crumb

  War, Sound, World

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• The retrospective glance is a relatively easy gesture for us to make.

  George Crumb

  Gestures, Easy, Glances

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• I frequently hear our present period described as uncertain, confused, chaotic.

  George Crumb

  Confused, Swag, Periods

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• I have observed, too, that the people of the many countries that I have visited are showing an ever increasing interest in the classical and traditional music of their own cultures.

  George Crumb

  Country, People, Culture

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• As interesting as that music can occasionally be, I don't think it really replaces the other.

  George Crumb

  Thinking, Interesting

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• Most of my influences are turn-of-the-century.

  George Crumb

  Influence, Century, Turns

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