Composer Quotes

• If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.

  Gustav Mahler

  Funny, Music, Expression

  Letter to Max Marschalk, March 26, 1896.

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• A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians.

  Frank Zappa

  Music, Writing, Air

  Frank Zappa, Peter Occhiogrosso (1990). “Real Frank Zappa Book”, p.162, Simon and Schuster

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• The greatest composer does not sit down to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working.

  Ernest Newman

  Doe, Inspired

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• My dream was always to be a composer, but fashion came very easily.

  Gianni Versace

  Dream, Fashion

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• Any composer who is gloriously conscious that he is a composer must believe that he receives his inspiration from a source higher than himself.

  John Philip Sousa

  Believe, Inspiration, Conscious

  John Philip Sousa (2010). “Six marches”, p.46, A-R Editions, Inc.

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• I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.

  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

  Feelings, Intuition, Criticism

  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Leopold Mozart (1966). “The Letters of Mozart and His Family”

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• Composers dialogue - and obsessively, bitterly argue - with other composers, often over the span of several centuries.

  Brian Ferneyhough

  Arguing, Century, Dialogue

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• A characteristic of older folksongs, in most cases, is that we don't know their composers or authors. Older folksongs were written often with no commercial purpose in mind. They were passed down by word of mouth, from generation to generation.

  Tom Glazer

  Mind, Generations, Purpose

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• I've got a collection of songs that I've had, I keep adding to and they're all great American composers. I wanted to showcase American composers and I've done that on a lot of my records and played things by American composers that I really respect.

  Charlie Haden

  Song, Done, Records

  "Charlie Haden Remembers Tomorrow". Interview With Mike Brannon, www.allaboutjazz.com. March 7, 2003.

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• Americans can pretty much sing anything, whereas foreign singers are often limited in style, language, even composer.

  Marilyn Horne

  Style, Singers, Language

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• The Russian composers, especially, tricked the symphony orchestra into the kind of dynamic, rhythmic thing

  Gerry Mulligan

  Symphony, Orchestra, Kind

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• Composers are the only people who can hear good music above bad sounds.

  John Philip Sousa

  People, Sound

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• There are no black film composers doing the likes of Star Wars, doing the likes of E.T., doing the likes of Jurassic Park. There are none, nor will there ever be one. That ain't about to happen!

  J. J. Johnson

  Stars, War, Jurassic Park

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• I feel that I belong to the 19th century. Some composers' music is very topical. It almost says, 'This is about what I read in newspapers yesterday.' Not mine.

  Gordon Getty

  Yesterday, Century, Newspapers

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• Intelligent analysis of the composer's intention and strict adherence to it automatically ensures sincerity.

  Kate Smith

  Intelligent, Analysis, Adherence

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• Many composers today don't know what the human throat is.

  Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

  Today, Throat, Humans

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• Composers are not all good conductors.

  Anton Seidl

  Conductor

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• What inspires me is not so much the music as the opportunity to interact with composers. I think that has driven everything I've done.

  Robert Moog

  Opportunity, Thinking, Inspire

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• A hundred years ago, of course, the question that the German Composers' Co-operative asked itself sounded a lot more fundamental: How do you create a fair share for those who ensure that works can actually be performed at all?

  Johannes Rau

  Years, Fundamentals, Share

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• Today each composer is not only involved in aesthetics, but he's actually trying to create his own language.

  Leo Ornstein

  Trying, Today, Language

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• The composers could no longer direct all performances in person, and so the responsibility of interpreting their works in the spirit in which they had been conceived was placed upon conductors.

  Anton Seidl

  Responsibility, Spirit, Performances

  Anton Seidl (2014). “On Conducting”, p.100, Parrot Press

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• It doesn't necessarily mean at all that the composer plays his own works best.

  Leo Ornstein

  Mean, Play

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• To me, all writing is like music. And especially dialogue. I studied music in college; that is what I wanted to be, a composer. Acting got me sidetracked.

  Dirk Benedict

  Writing, College, Acting

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• Do you know that my very first experience as a composer was a 'Concerto for Accordion?

  Alfred Schnittke

  Firsts, Accordions, Knows

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• When you have great songs that are going to live longer than the composers, everything you can do to bring those different elements and nuances out, serve the song

  Michael Bolton

  Song, Different, Elements

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