Aaron Copland Quotes

Quotes about:

• To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.

  Aaron Copland

  Music, Time, Would Be

  Aaron Copland (1959). “The pleasures of music”

  67 Copy quote

• So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.

  Aaron Copland

  Music, Long, Giving

  Aaron Copland, Richard Kostelanetz (2004). “Aaron Copland: A Reader : Selected Writings 1923-1972”, p.32, Psychology Press

  45 Copy quote

• The greatest moments of the human spirit may be deduced from the greatest moments in music.

  Aaron Copland

  May, Spirit, Moments

  Aaron Copland, Richard Kostelanetz (2004). “Aaron Copland: A Reader : Selected Writings 1923-1972”, p.27, Psychology Press

  29 Copy quote

• The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking "Is there a meaning to music?" My answer would be, "Yes", And "Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?" My answer to that would be "No."

  Aaron Copland

  Music, Art, Would Be

  What to Listen for in Music (1939) ch. 2

  36 Copy quote

• Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes.

  Aaron Copland

  Symphony, Listening, Cows

  24 Copy quote

• You compose because you want to somehow summarize in some permanent form your most basic feelings about being alive, to set down some sort of permanent statement about the way it feels to live now, today.

  Aaron Copland

  Feelings, Live For Today, Alive

  28 Copy quote

• Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific.

  Aaron Copland

  Music, Wisdom, Stress

  29 Copy quote

• The main thing is to be satisfied with your work yourself. It's useless to have an audience happy if you are not happy.

  Aaron Copland

  Useless, Not Happy, Satisfied

  20 Copy quote

• This whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, “Is there a meaning to music?” My answer to that would be, “Yes.” And “Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?” My answer to that would be, “No.”

  Aaron Copland

  Music, Jazz, States

  "What to Listen For in Music".

  26 Copy quote

• If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.

  Aaron Copland

  Play, Want, Knows

  "Aaron Copland: the Life and Work of an Uncommon Man". Book by Howard Pollack, 1999.

  20 Copy quote

• Music that is born complex is not inherently better or worse than music that is born simple.

  Aaron Copland

  Simple, Musical, Born

  Aaron Copland (1952). “Music and imagination”, Harvard Univ Pr

  20 Copy quote

• Someone once asked me... whether I waited for inspiration. My answer was: "Every day!"

  Aaron Copland

  Inspiration, Answers

  Aaron Copland (2011). “What to Listen For in Music”, p.27, Penguin

  11 Copy quote

• I don't compose. I assemble materials.

  Aaron Copland

  Materials

  "Aaron Copland: the Life and Work of an Uncommon Man". Book by Howard Pollack, 1999.

  9 Copy quote

• For me, the most important thing is the element of chance that is built into a live performance. The very great drawback of recorded sound is the fact that it is always the same. No matter how wonderful a recording is, I know that I couldn't live with it--even of my own music--with the same nuances forever.

  Aaron Copland

  Forever, Important, Sound

  "Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music". Book by Richard Kostelanetz, 1996.

  13 Copy quote

• There is something about music that keeps its distance even at the moment that it engulfs us. It is at the same time outside and away from us and inside and part of us. In one sense it dwarfs us, and in another we master it. We are led on and on, and yet in some strange way we never lose control.

  Aaron Copland

  Music, Distance, Way

  Aaron Copland (1980). “Music and Imagination”, p.10, Harvard University Press

  17 Copy quote

• Mozart in his music was probably the most reasonable of the world's great composers. It is the happy balance between flight and control, between sensibility and self-discipline, simplicity and sophistication of style that is his particular province... Mozart tapped once again the source from which all music flows, expressing himself with a spontaneity and refinement and breath-taking rightness that has never since been duplicated.

  Aaron Copland

  Self, Discipline, Simplicity

  9 Copy quote

• You may be sitting in a room reading this book. Imagine one note struck upon the piano. Immediately that one note is enough to change the atmosphere of the room - proving that the sound element in music is a powerful and mysterious agent, which it would be foolish to deride or belittle.

  Aaron Copland

  Powerful, Book, Reading

  Aaron Copland (2011). “What to Listen For in Music”, p.23, Penguin

  9 Copy quote

• Composers tend to assume that everyone loves music. Surprisingly enough, everyone doesn’t.

  Aaron Copland

  Assuming, Music Love, One Love

  14 Copy quote

• The inspired moment may sometimes be described as a kind of hallucinatory state of mind: one half of the personality emotes and dictates while the other half listens and notates. The half that listens has better look the other way, had better simulate a half attention only, for the half that dictates is easily disgruntled and avenges itself for too close inspection by fading entirely away.

  Aaron Copland

  Personality, Listening, Mind

  Aaron Copland (1980). “Music and Imagination”, p.43, Harvard University Press

  13 Copy quote

• Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness - I wouldn't know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.

  Aaron Copland

  Inspirational, Art, Self

  10 Copy quote

• I adore extravagance but I abhor waste.

  Aaron Copland

  Extravagance, Waste, Adore

  "Aaron Copland: the Life and Work of an Uncommon Man". Book by Howard Pollack, 1999.

  9 Copy quote

• When I speak of the gifted listener, I am thinking of the nonmusician primarily, of the listener who intends to retain his amateur status. It is the thought of just such a listener that excites the composer in me.

  Aaron Copland

  Music, Thinking, Listening

  11 Copy quote

• If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong.

  Aaron Copland

  Men, Two, Together

  7 Copy quote

• If one were asked to name one musician who came closest to composing without human flaw, I suppose general consensus would choose Johann Sebastian Bach.

  Aaron Copland

  Names, Musician, Flaws

  Aaron Copland (1959). “The pleasures of music”

  7 Copy quote

• A melody is not merely something you can hum.

  Aaron Copland

  Melody

  14 Copy quote

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