Edgard Varese Quotes

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  Contrary to general belief, an artist is never ahead of his time but most people are far behind theirs.

  Edgard Varese

  Artist, People, Belief

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• A man is culpable in the eyes of society when he escapes from the jurisdiction of its mediocrity.

  Edgard Varese

  Eye, Men, Mediocrity

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• A work of art must make the rules: rules do not make a work of art...I tell people I am not a musician; I work with rhythms, frequencies and intensities...tunes are merely the gossips of music.

  Edgard Varese

  Art, Gossip, People

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• I do not write experimental music. My experimenting is done before I make the music. Afterwards it is the listener who must experiment.

  Edgard Varese

  Music, Writing, Done

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• Music is organized sound.

  Edgard Varese

  Sound, Music Is, Organized

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• The beginning of art is not reason. It is the buried treasure of the unconscious...that unconscious which has more understanding than our lucidity.

  Edgard Varese

  Art, Understanding, Treasure

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• I dream of instruments obedient to my thought and which with their contribution of a whole new world of unsuspected sounds, will lend themselves to the exigencies of my inner rhythm.

  Edgard Varese

  Dream, Sound, World

  Edgard Varèse lecture, edited by Chou Wen-Chung, published in: "391", Nr. 5. June 17, 1917, translated by Louise Varèse; Quoted in: "Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music: A Continuing Symposium", 1996.

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• I don't want to write any more for the old Man-power instruments and am handicapped by the lack of adequate electrical instruments for which I now conceive my music.

  Edgard Varese

  Writing, Men, Adequate

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• I rather like a certain clumsiness in a work of art.

  Edgard Varese

  Art, Clumsiness, Certain

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• I was not influenced by composers as much as by natural objects and physical phenomena.

  Edgard Varese

  Hair, Natural, Composer

  "Sound Structure in Music". Book by Robert Erickson, 1975.

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• Music, which should pulsate with life, needs new means of expression, and science alone can infuse it with youthful vigor.

  Edgard Varese

  Mean, Science, Expression

  "Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music". Book by Richard Kostelanetz, 1996.

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• The present day composer refuses to die.

  Edgard Varese

  Composer, Refuse, Present Day

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• Of all the arts, music is the one communal art. It requires for its existence extensive cooperation and organization...Singing together the greatest choral music of all time is the surest way of developing in a community that sense of quality and reverence for beauty, which is the basis of a musical culture...Entertainment has its place in life just as candies and cocktails have, but health is not built on such a diet alone, nor culture exclusively on amusement.

  Edgard Varese

  Art, Organization, Community

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• Music is the most abstract of the arts and also the most physical....music is under two signs, the stars and the wine

  Edgard Varese

  Art, Stars, Wine

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• There is an idea, the basis of an internal structure, expanded and split into different shapes or groups of sound constantly changing in shape, direction, and speed, attracted and repulsed by various forces.

  Edgard Varese

  Ideas, Sound, Groups

  "Aspects of 20th Century Music". Book by R. Delone, May 1, 1975.

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• There are two infinities: God and stupidity.

  Edgard Varese

  Two, Stupidity, Infinity

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• No matter how consummate a work of art may seem, it is only an approximation of the original conception. It is the artist's consciousness of this discrepancy between his conception and the realization that assures his progress.

  Edgard Varese

  Art, Discrepancies Between, Progress

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• Our musical alphabet is poor and illogical. Music, which should pulsate with life, needs new means of expression, and science alone can infuse it with youthful vigor. Why, Italian Futurists, have you slavishly reproduced only what is commonplace and boring in the bustle of our daily lives. I dream of instruments obedient to my thought and which with their contribution of a whole new world of unsuspected sounds, will lend themselves to the exigencies of my inner rhythm.

  Edgard Varese

  Music, Dream, Mean

  "Classic Essays on Twentieth-century Music: A Continuing Symposium". Book by Richard Kostelanetz, 1996.

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• Men set themselves a goal, and having attained it, are satisfied and grow paunches. In their complacency they forget that their only future is now death.

  Edgard Varese

  Men, Goal, Complacency

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• In every domain of art, a work that corresponds to the need of its day carries a message of social and cultural value. It is the artist who crystallizes his age ... who fixes his time in history.

  Edgard Varese

  Art, Age, Needs

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• Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.

  Edgard Varese

  Inspirational, Children, People

  As quoted by Martha Graham in Dance Observer, Volumes 24-27, p. 5, 1957.

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• I have just begun a work in which an important part is given to a large chorus and with it I want to use several of your instruments - augmenting their range as in those I used for my Equatorial - especially in the high range.

  Edgard Varese

  Important, Use, Want

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• Our musical alphabet is poor and illogical.

  Edgard Varese

  Musical, Alphabet, Poor

  Edgard Varèse lecture, edited by Chou Wen-Chung, published in: "391", Nr. 5. Translated by Louise Varèse; Quoted in: "Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music: A Continuing Symposium" (1996), June 17, 1917.

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