Musical Quotes by the Composers and Famous People



Musical Quotes by Composers and Famous People

“There are only twelve tones. You must treat them carefully.”

- Paul Hindemith

“It is the melody which is the charm of music, and it is that which is most difficult to produce. The invention of a fine melody is a work of genius.”

- Joseph Haydn

“In the beginning was rhythm.”

- Hans Von Bulow

“Music, to create harmony, must investigate discord.”

- Plutarch

“The whole duty of a conductor is comprised in his ability to indicate the right tempo.”

- Richard Wagner

“Lucidity is the first purpose of color in music.”

- Arnold Schoenberg

“All music is nothing more than a succession of impulses that converge towards a definite point of repose.”

- Igor Stravinsky

“The end of all good music is to affect the soul.”

- Claudio Monteverdi

“I alter some things, eliminate and try again until I am satisfied. Then begins the mental working out of this material in its breadth, its narrowness, its height and depth.”

- Ludwig van Beethoven

“People make a mistake who think that my art has come easily to me. Nobody has devoted so much time and thought to composition as I. There is not a famous master whose music I have not studied over and over.”

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

“To write a symphony means, to me, to construct a world.”

- Gustav Mahler

“I have only just learned in my old age how to use the wind instruments, and now that I do understand them I must leave the world.”

- Joseph Haydn

“Freedom above all!”

- Ludwig van Beethoven

“Music to me is the perfect expression of the soul.”

- Robert Schumann

“It is not hard to compose, but it is wonderfully hard to let the superfluous notes fall under the table.”

- Johannes Brahms

“My life … an episode without a beginning and with a sad end.”

- Frederic Francois Chopin

“I work very long on melodies. The important thing is not the beginning of the melody but its continuation, its development into a fully completed artistic form.”

- Richard Strauss

“I try to write only as I feel in myself.”

- Bedrich Smetana

“A great symphony is a man-made Mississippi down which we irresistibly flow from the instant of our leave-taking to a long foreseen destination.”

- Aaron Copland

“We are so made that we can derive intense enjoyment only from a contrast.”

- Sigmund Freud

“It is better to invent reality than to copy it.”

- Giuseppe Verdi

“Success is impossible for me if I cannot write as my heart dictates!”

- Guiseppe Verdi

“The composer gives the best of himself to the making of a work. He believes, doubts, enthuses, despairs, rejoices, and suffers in turn.”

- Georges Bizet

“Truly there would be reason to go mad were it not for music.”

- Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

“The century of aeroplanes has a right to its own music. As there are no precedents, I must create anew.”

- Claude Debussy

“I did my work slowly; drop by drop. I tore it out of me by pieces.”

- Maurice Ravel

“The art of music above all other arts is the expression of the soul of a nation. The composer must love the tunes of his country and they must become an integral part of him.”

- Ralph Vaughan Williams

“Music … the favorite passion of my soul.”

- Thomas Jefferson

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