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