Classical Composers Quotes

I am a ham. I've no business being rock 'n' roll. I've said it over and over again that I'm a classical composer, dishevelling my personality by dabbling in rock 'n' roll.

When I was 20, Shostakovich was my favorite composer. I still find his Fifth Symphony wonderful, with its outstanding themes and rhythms. That's the piece that made me want to be a classical composer.

I loved Hendrix. I mean, really, really loved him. As if he were one of the great classical composers. And he was. That's how I saw him.

Everything we do is music." (Classical Composer)(From: 4'33")

I would prefer to listen to a French classical composer like Olivier Messiaen than to the pop hits of the day.

I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons. First to discourage the composer from writing any more and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven.

I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer.

I'm not interested in having an orchestra sound like itself. I want it to sound like the composer.

Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.

I tend to listen to the classical composers: Rachmaninov, Satie.

Jazz has been such a force in music, that any musician, including classical composers, have been influenced, and obviously performers, also.

Music is the social act of communication among people, a gesture of friendship, the strongest there is.

Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.

Works of art make rules but rules do not make works of art.

Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.

You can't possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven's Seventh and go slow. (Oscar trying to talk his way out of a speeding ticket)

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

... 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.

A great ancient poet was blind. A great classical composer was deaf. Many of us are dumb. What have we to show for it?

Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.

Physicists are more like avant-garde composers, willing to bend traditional rules... Mathematicians are more like classical composers.

Inspiration is an awakening, a quickening of all man's faculties, and it is manifested in all high artistic achievements.

Competitions are for horses, not artists.

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.

Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth.

To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.

But there's a thin line between songwriting and arranging. ... Recording at home enables one to eliminate the demo stage, and the presentation stage in the studio, too. ... And I think it's safe to say that the single very impressive figure to me was Merle Haggard. ... Dylan can do no wrong. ... Glenn Gould was my hero. Glenn Gould was my idol. I loved him. ... I loved Hendrix. I mean, really, really loved him. As if he were one of the great classical composers. And he was. That's how I saw him.

The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music they should be taught to love it instead.

A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.

The only love affair I have ever had was with music.

Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.

To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.

You think about, like, [20th-century classical composers] Alban Berg, Schoenberg, and Webern sitting around in some living room in Vienna and being like, "We are the end of music. We are the end of this tradition. Music is done."

[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.