Classical Music Quotes - Page 2

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

  Johannes Brahms

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Music

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• It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.

  Johann Sebastian Bach

  Music, Keys, Play

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

  Leonard Bernstein

  Sound, Orchestra, Want

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• There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between.

  Thomas Beecham

  Funny, Music, Two

  In Harold Atkins and Archie Newman Beecham Stories (1978) p. 27

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• Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.

  Nina Simone

  Music, White, Racism

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.

  Mark Twain

  Music, Witty, Humorous

  Autobiography (published in 1924).

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• If classical music is the state of the art, then the arts are in a sad state.

  Frank Zappa

  Music, Art, States

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• I've outdone anyone you can name - Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss. Irving Berlin, he wrote 1,001 tunes. I wrote 5,500.

  James Brown

  Music, Names, Tunes

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• 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.

  Jascha Heifetz

  Writing, Play, Two

  1961 In Life.

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• Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memories.

  Oscar Wilde

  Music, Art, Memories

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.88, Wordsworth Editions

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• A good composer does not imitate; he steals.

  Igor Stravinsky

  Music, Jazz And Life, Doe

  In Peter Yates Twentieth Century Music (1967) pt. 1, ch. 8. Cf. T. S. Eliot 76:8, Lionel Trilling 218:1

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• 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.

  Igor Stravinsky

  Music, Appreciation, Humorous

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• My music is best understood by children and animals.

  Igor Stravinsky

  Children, Animal, Pet

  In Observer 8 Oct. 1961

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• A musicologist is a man who can read music but cannot hear it.

  Thomas Beecham

  Music, Men

  In H. Proctor-Gregg Beecham Remembered (1976) pt. 2, p. 154

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• Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass?

  Michael Torke

  Funny, Music, Listening

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• Classical music is one of the best things that ever happened to mankind. If you get introduced to it in the right way, it becomes your friend for life.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Life, Way, Music Is

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• To sing is to pray twice.

  Saint Augustine

  Catholic, Praying

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• I had to listen to the classical music because it calms me down, calms my nerves down.

  Novak Djokovic

  Nerves, Calm

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• I was born out of classical music.

  Mika

  Born

  "Mika meets Dita Von Teese: 'I've had to work hard to stay like this'". Interview with Paul Lester, www.theguardian.com. October 11, 2012.

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• Classical music's ability to translate emotional themes is fantastic.

  Alan Price

  Emotional, Fantasy, Fantastic

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• Nature has given us two ears but only one mouth.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Two, Silence, Ears

  Benjamin Disraeli (1837). “Works”, p.324

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• Jazz is America's classical music.

  Billy Taylor

  Music, America, Jazz

  "Dr. Billy Taylor, 90th birthday anniversary: Interview". Interview with Ted Panken, tedpanken.wordpress.com. October 14, 1999.

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• The human attitude of which classical music is the expression is always the same; it is always based on the same kind of insight into life and strives for the same kind of victory over blind change. Classical music as gesture signifies knowledge of the tragedy of the human condition, affirmation of human destiny, courage, cheerful serenity.

  Hermann Hesse

  Music, Attitude, Destiny

  "The Glass Bead Game". Book by Hermann Hesse, 1943.

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• Obviously classical music tends to be stuff that is usually at least a hundred years old.

  Steve Hackett

  Years, Stuff, Classic

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• I only knew classical music, which to me was the only true music. The only way I could survive at the bar was to mix the classical music with popular songs, and that meant I had to sing. What happened was that I discovered I had a voice plus the talent to mix classical music together with more popular songs, which at the time I detested.

  Nina Simone

  Music, Song, Voice

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