Composer Quotes - Page 12

• Composers aren't daring enough. They're afraid of that sacred idol called 'common sense', which is the most dreadful thing I know - after all, it's no more than a religion founded to excuse the ubiquity of imbeciles!

  Claude Debussy

  Idols, Ubiquity, Common Sense

  Claude Debussy, François Lesure, Roger Nichols (1987). “Debussy Letters: ,”, Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press

  37 Copy quote

  Show source

• Tim Price continues to explore and develop his deeply personal approach to music. Through the years his persistence, determination and passion has enabled him to create a stellar reputation as a multiple woodwind master, composer, producer, author and last but not least educator. Tim is one of the best musicians active today and I'm happy to say he's my friend.

  Bennie Maupin

  Determination, Passion, Persistence

  5 Copy quote

• Freddie Bryant is a brilliant young guitarist and composer.

  Kenny Burrell

  Brilliant, Young, Guitarist

  20 Copy quote

• Composers combine notes, that's all.

  Igor Stravinsky

  Notes

  Igor Stravinsky, Robert Craft (1982). “Dialogues”, p.52, Univ of California Press

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good composers don't borrow, they steal

  Igor Stravinsky

  Stealing

  4 Copy quote

• I shall be the first composer in history not to have a biography.

  Pierre Boulez

  Biographies, Firsts

  19 Copy quote

• In my view, the composer,
  just as the poet, the sculptor or the painter,
  is in duty bound to serve Man, the people.
  He must beautify life and defend it.
  He must be a citizen first and foremost,
  so that his art might consciously extol human life
  and lead man to a radiant future.

  Sergei Prokofiev

  Art, Men, Views

  102 Copy quote

• Every piece of music is a form of personal expression for its creator...If a work doesnt express the composers own personal point of view, his own ideas, then it doesnt, in my opinion, even deserve to be born.

  Dmitri Shostakovich

  Views, Expression, Ideas

  54 Copy quote

• Thus, if a composer wants to produce music that is relevant to his contemporaries, his chief problem is not really musical, though it may seem to him to be so; it is a problem of attitude to contemporary society and culture in relation to the basic human problem of learning to be human.

  John Blacking

  Music, Attitude, Culture

  John Blacking (1974). “How Musical is Man?”, p.104, University of Washington Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• If the reader were so rash as to purchase any of Bela Bartok's compositions, he would find that they each and all consist of unmeaning bunches of notes, apparently representing the composer promenading the keyboard in his boots. Some can be played better with the elbows, others with the flat of the hand. None require fingers to perform or ears to listen too.

  Frederick Corder

  Hands, Musical, Boots

  4 Copy quote

• To Strauss the composer I take off my hat; to Strauss the man I put it back on again.

  Arturo Toscanini

  Men, Hats, He Man

  27 Copy quote

• By the cigars they smoke, and the composers they love, ye shall know the texture of men's souls.

  John Galsworthy

  Men, Soul, Texture

  John Galsworthy (2016). “The Forsythe Saga”, p.306, Xist Publishing

  36 Copy quote

  Show source

• Not many composers have ideas. Far more of them know how to use strange instruments which do not require ideas.

  George Gershwin

  Ideas, Use, Strange

  1930 'The Composer in the Machine Age'.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• ... Andres Segovia literally created the genre of classical guitar, which hadn't existed before around 1910. There was flamenco, which he borrowed from, but he actually arranged the works of Mozart and other classical composers for guitar, something that had never been done before ... Segovias' style is not slick or contrived, but it's still very clean and his timing is impeccable ... it's got a feeling of casual elegance, as if he's sitting around the house in Spain with a jug of wine, just playing from the heart.

  Roger McGuinn

  Music, Heart, Wine

  15 Copy quote

• I had been to São Paulo the year before and became pretty well acquainted with the music of composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, I had already started playing that music, and the audience response had been pretty good because those songs are so melodic. I knew it would be something that would be appealing; I wasn't thinking that it would make the top of the pop charts or anything like that.

  Charlie Byrd

  Music, Song, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• I'm a fanatic about Irish music. I love its moody, modal and timeless quality. I'm different from some other composers, because I don't look at this as just a job. I think of music as art.

  James Horner

  Art, Jobs, Thinking

  19 Copy quote

• The September 11 attacks were the greatest work of art in the cosmos...compared to that, we composers are nothing

  Karlheinz Stockhausen

  Art, September 11, Cosmos

  16 Copy quote

• Louie Bellson represents the epitome of musical talent. His ability to cover the whole musical spectrum from an elite percussionist to a very gifted composer and arranger never ceases to amaze me. I consider him one of the musical giants of our age.

  Oscar Peterson

  Musical, Age, Giants

  10 Copy quote

• Most artists, most painters, even composers would want to come back and redo their work. They've got a new perspective on it, they've got more resources, they have better technology, and they can fix or finish the things that were never done.

  George Lucas

  Artist, Technology, Perspective

  Source: movieweb.com

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am a composer first and foremost, and have always believed that being able to write memorable melodies is what sets musicians apart. My songs bring images to the listener's mind. The object is to transport my listeners to another place, some place sacred and spiritual that will make them glad they took the ride.

  Bradley Joseph

  Spiritual, Song, Memorable

  4 Copy quote

• Bad facts make bad law, and people who write bad laws are in my opinion more dangerous than songwriters who celebrate sexuality. Freedom of speech, freedom of religious thought, and the right to due process for composers, performers and retailers are imperiled if the PMRC and the major labels consummate this nasty bargain.

  Frank Zappa

  Religious, Writing, Law

  Frank Zappa, Peter Occhiogrosso (1990). “Real Frank Zappa Book”, p.276, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is more to creative mastership than the surface of satisfaction and political certainty. The music of Joe Fonda is part of a living tradition of belief and dedication. Future historians will be surprised at the breadth of Mr. Fonda's offerings. This is a real virtuoso and composer of the highest order.

  Anthony Braxton

  Real, Dedication, Offering

  4 Copy quote

• Out of the choked Devonian waters emerged sight and sound and the music that rolls invisible through the composer's brain. They are there still in the ooze along the tideline, though no one notices. The world is fixed, we say: fish in the sea, birds in the air. But in the mangrove swamps by the Niger, fish climb trees and ogle uneasy naturalists who try unsuccessfully to chase them back to the water. There are things still coming ashore.

  Loren Eiseley

  Sight, Air, Sea

  Loren Eiseley (2011). “The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature”, p.54, Vintage

  45 Copy quote

  Show source

• Wynton Marsalis' skills have grown as fast as his ambition, and he is the most ambitious younger composer in Jazz.

  Jon Pareles

  Ambition, Skills, Ambitious

  "Review/Jazz; Wynton Marsalis Takes a Long Look at Slavery". www.nytimes.com. April 04, 1994.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It’s really strange, but they speak to me — the notes and the chords. So when I hear other people’s music, I can feel the composer. Whoever created that, I can see in their soul.

  Yanni

  People, Soul, Strange

  4 Copy quote