Stravinsky Quotes

• The fact that Stravinsky used the classics as a major influence is obvious. What is interesting is how he used them, how he turned Bach into Stravinsky.

  Lukas Foss

  Interesting, Facts, Influence

  8 Copy quote

• Stravinsky is masterly: his harmony is conceived so precisely that it can only be the way it is.

  Esa-Pekka Salonen

  Way, Harmony

  7 Copy quote

• The first music I was exposed to was Stravinsky and I loved it but I don't remember it.

  Leo Kottke

  Firsts, Remember, Exposed

  8 Copy quote

• Pulse as an active means of expression, Stravinsky and Beethoven are the two masters of that.

  Esa-Pekka Salonen

  Mean, Expression, Two

  8 Copy quote

• I've learned a lot from the masters of orchestration, like Ravel and Stravinsky.

  Esa-Pekka Salonen

  Ravel, I've Learned, Masters

  8 Copy quote

• Stravinsky used Mother Goose. He was influenced by Mother Goose, indirectly, but very beautifully

  Gyorgy Ligeti

  Mother, Used, Geese

  49 Copy quote

• Even Stravinsky does not evoke the same public affection as Verdi.

  Charles Rosen

  Doe, Affection, Evoke

  Charles Rosen (2002). “Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist”, p.231, Simon and Schuster

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Bernard Herrmann used to write all his scores by himself. So did Bach, Beethoven and Stravinsky. I dont understand why this happens in the movie industry.

  Ennio Morricone

  Writing, Used, Score

  "Mozart of film music" by Adam Sweeting, www.theguardian.com. February 22, 2001.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• New music? Hell, there's been no new music since Stravinsky.

  Duke Ellington

  Hell, New Music

  1970 Quoted in D Jewell Duke (1977).

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• The composer Stravinsky had written a new piece with a difficult violin passage. After it had been in rehearsal for several weeks, the solo violinist came to Stravinsky and said he was sorry, he had tried his best, the passage was too difficult, no violinist could play it. Stravinsky said, 'I understand that. What I am after is the sound of someone trying to play it.'

  Thomas Powers

  Sorry, Play, Trying

  6 Copy quote

• Since I didn't have any kind of formal training, it didn't make any difference to me if I was listening to Lightnin' Slim, or a vocal group called the Jewels ... , or Webern, or Varèse, or Stravinsky. To me it was all good music.

  Frank Zappa

  Jewels, Differences, Listening

  Frank Zappa, Peter Occhiogrosso (1990). “Real Frank Zappa Book”, p.34, Simon and Schuster

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is this tremendous amount of arrogance and hubris, where somebody can look at something for five minutes and dismiss it. Whether you talk about gaming or 20th century classical music, you can't do it in five minutes. You can't listen to 'The Rite of Spring' once and understand what Stravinsky was all about.

  Penn Jillette

  Spring, Arrogance, Looks

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

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• If possible, be Russian. And live in another country. Play chess. Be an active trader between languages. Carry precious metals from one to the other. Remind us of Stravinsky. Know the names of plants and flying creatures. Hunt gauzy wings with snares of gauze. Make science pay tribute. Have a butterfly known by your name.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Life, Country, Butterfly

  4 Copy quote

• We might as well swing boys, because Stravinsky cuts us all.

  Woody Herman

  Music, Cutting, Boys

  6 Copy quote

• You can rave about Stravinsky without the slightest risk of being classified as a lunatic by the next generation .

  George Bernard Shaw

  Risk, Generations, Next

  4 Copy quote

• I loved Debussy, Stravinsky, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, anything with romantic melodies, especially the nocturnes. Nietzsche was a hero, especially with Thus Spoke Zarathustra. He gets a bad rap; hes very misunderstood. Hes a maker of individuals, and he was a teacher of teachers.

  Joni Mitchell

  Teacher, Rap, Hero

  53 Copy quote

• In two thousand years all our generals and politicians may be forgotten, but Einstein and Madame Curie and Bernard Shaw and Stravinsky will keep the memory of our age alive.

  Anthony Burgess

  Memories, Two, Years

  "English Literature: A Survey for Students". Book by Anthony Burgess, 1958.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm not the kind of actor who runs around and insists on being called Stravinsky by everybody, and my family has to call me Igor. I'm not that kind of actor. I think that's pretentious.

  Mads Mikkelsen

  Running, Thinking, Actors

  Source: collider.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's something he used to say when he was happy. It could be a very, very simple day. We might be sitting out on the front lawn. Dad loved classical music and we might be listening to some Stravinsky or something and having some tea and eggs. And he'd say, 'Oh, good stuff, isn't it?'

  Jennifer Grant

  Dad, Simple, Eggs

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

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• That's the way Stravinsky was. Bup, bup, bup, bup. The poor guy's dead now. Play it legato.

  Eugene Ormandy

  Funny, Play, Guy

  9 Copy quote

• Stravinsky the composer I worship. Stravinsky the thinker I despise.

  Dmitri Shostakovich

  Worship, Despise, Composer

  27 Copy quote

• I'm not a star. I'll never be a Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley or a Ray Charles. I'm just an imitator, man. I'm doing a very bad imitation on the bass of Jerry Jemmott, Bernard Odum, Jimmy Fielder, Jimmy Blanton, Igor Stravinsky, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, James Brown, Charlie Parker... the cats, man. I'm just backing up the cats.

  Jaco Pastorius

  Stars, Cat, Men

  77 Copy quote

• Art is theft”) and Igor Stravinsky (“Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal”), I’ve always stolen from the people I admire – not plagiarized, mind you, but stolen bits of ideas and stylistic influences. If you steal widely enough, after all, your models are inevitably changed and the result is in the end completely yours. Kleon cites André Gide to this point, in a quotation I love: “Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.

  Austin Kleon

  Art, Ideas, People

  5 Copy quote

• Most of us are searching-consciously or unconsciously- for a degree of internal balance and harmony between ourselves and the outside world, and if we happen to become aware-like Stravinsky- of a volcano within us, we will compensate by urging restraint. By that same token, someone who bore a glacier within them might urge passionate abandon. The danger is, as Bergman points out, that a glacial personality in need of passionate abandon may read Stravinsky and apply restraint instead.

  Walter Murch

  Balance And Harmony, Volcanoes, Personality

  13 Copy quote

• [Phil wood] put on some [Igor] Stravinsky and say to follow the score, tell me to play me the opening to the Rite of Spring. Or, "I'm going to play you some 20th century obscure classical composer you don't know". Or, "Let's listen to some Charles Ives, let's sight read some Bartok violin duets", etc.

  Jon Gordon

  Spring, Sight, Play

  4 Copy quote