Sergei Prokofiev Quotes

• 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

  101 Copy quote

• There are still so many beautiful things to be said in C major.

  Sergei Prokofiev

  Music, Beautiful, Said

  103 Copy quote

• I have never doubted the importance of melody. I like melody very much, and I consider it the most important element in music, and I labour many years on the improvement of its quality in my compositions.

  Sergei Prokofiev

  Years, Important, Quality

  57 Copy quote

• My chief virtue (or if you like, defect) has been a tireless lifelong search for an original, individual musical idiom. I detest imitation, I detest hackneyed devices.

  Sergei Prokofiev

  Musical, Virtue, Imitation

  "Sergei Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences". Book by Sergei Prokofiev, Edited by S. Shlifstein and translated by Rose Prokofieva, p. 7, 1960.

  64 Copy quote

• Of course I have used dissonance in my time, but there has been too much dissonance. Bach used dissonance as good salt for his music. Others applied pepper, seasoned the dishes more and more highly, till all healthy appetites were sick and until the music was nothing but pepper.

  Sergei Prokofiev

  Sick, Healthy, Too Much

  51 Copy quote

• Formalism is music that people don't understand at first hearing.

  Sergei Prokofiev

  People, Hearing, Firsts

  "Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia". Book by Boris Schwarz, p. 115, 1972.

  47 Copy quote

• I detest imitation, I detest hackneyed devices.

  Sergei Prokofiev

  Music, Imitation, Devices

  "Sergei Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences". Book by Sergei Prokofiev, edited by S. Shlifstein and translated by Rose Prokofieva, 1960.

  44 Copy quote

• I want nothing better, more flexible or more complete than the sonata form, which contains everything necessary for my structural purposes.

  Sergei Prokofiev

  Purpose, Want, Form

  44 Copy quote

• When the Second World War broke out, I felt that everyone must do his share, and I began composing songs and marches for the front. But soon events assumed such gigantic and far-reaching scope as to demand larger canvasses.

  Sergei Prokofiev

  Song, War, Events

  49 Copy quote

• I strenuously object to the very word "grotesque" which has become hackneyed to the point of nausea...I would prefer my music to be described as "Scherzo-ish" in quality, or else by three words describing the various degrees of the Scherzo - whimsicality, laughter, mockery.

  Sergei Prokofiev

  Laughter, Quality, Nausea

  43 Copy quote

• It seemed to me that had Haydn lived to our day he would have retained his own style while accepting something of the new at the same time. That was the kind of symphony I wanted to write: a symphony in the classical style. And when I saw that my idea was beginning to work, I called it the Classical Symphony.

  Sergei Prokofiev

  Writing, Ideas, Symphony

  "Sergei Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences". Book edited by S. Shlifstein and translated by Rose Prokofieva, p. 46; from the "Autobiography", 1960.

  41 Copy quote

• My mother had to explain that one couldnt compose a Liszt rhapsody because it was a piece of music that Liszt himself had composed.

  Sergei Prokofiev

  Mother, Pieces

  31 Copy quote

• At home we didnt talk about religion. So gradually the question faded away by itself and disappeared from the agenda. When I was nineteen my father died; my response to his death was atheistic.

  Sergei Prokofiev

  Father, Home, Agendas

  39 Copy quote

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