Composition Quotes - Page 4

• Is it not the business of the conductor to convey to the public in its dramatic form the central idea of a composition; and how can he convey that idea successfully if he does not enter heart and soul into the life of the music and the tale it unfolds?

  John Philip Sousa

  Heart, Ideas, Soul

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• I am essentially a painter of the kind of still life composition that communicates a sense of tranquillity and privacy, moods which I have always valued above all else.

  Giorgio Morandi

  Art, Privacy, Kind

  Karen Wilkin, Giorgio Morandi (2007). “Giorgio Morandi: works, writings and interviews”, Poligrafa Ediciones Sa

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• A Composition on the Piano

  Johann Sebastian Bach

  Science, Piano

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• The unary Photograph has every reason to be banal, 'unity'
  of composition being the first rule of vulgar (and notably, of academic) rhetoric: 'The subject,' says one handbook for amateur photographers, 'must be simple, free of useless accessories; this is called the Search for Unity.

  Roland Barthes

  Simple, Unity, Accessories

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• When I left Europe in 1987 I did so with the thought that my relevance as a composition teacher would benefit from a certain cool distance to certain tendencies I had been observing for several years with increasing disquiet.

  Brian Ferneyhough

  Teacher, Distance, Years

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• Imagination, which is a quality writers must have, does not mean the ability to weave pretty stories out of nothing. In the right sense, imagination is a response to what is going on — a sensitiveness to which outside things appeal. It is a composition of sympathy and observation.

  Willa Cather

  Mean, Imagination, Quality

  Willa Cather (1990). “Willa Cather in Person: Interviews, Speeches, and Letters”, p.15, U of Nebraska Press

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• I hated teaching composition. I was playing music I didn't particularly want to play, being on committees I didn't want to be on.

  Richard Rodney Bennett

  Teaching, Play, Want

  "A life in music: Richard Rodney Bennett". Interview with Nicholas Wroe, www.theguardian.com. July 22, 2011.

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• I want less and less control with music. Just playing music without any idea of composition or writing.

  Yann Tiersen

  Writing, Ideas, Playing Music

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• With his new CD 'Tactiles' Liberty Ellman emerges as one of the most intriguing, albeit unorthodox, guitarists on the New York scene today. An album of original, esoteric compositions marked by dense polyrhythms, dissonant, angular lines and an organic logic that ties the whole thing together in brilliant fashion.

  Bill Milkowski

  Fashion, New York, Cds

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• Songs that don't depend on composition depend instead on performance - so the fire has to be there in the playing.

  Brian Eno

  Song, Fire, Performances

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• Brahma was excessively sparing with earth, water, and fire.... The reckless expenditure of air and ether in his composition was amazing. And, in consequence, he perpetually struggled to outreach the wind, to outrun space itself. Other animals ran only when they had a reason, but the Horse would run for no reason whatever, as if to run out of his own skin.

  Rabindranath Tagore

  Running, Horse, Animal

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• A considerable role in the forming of my style was played by an early attraction to study composition.

  Vasily Smyslov

  Style, Roles, Chess

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• The practice of employing metaphor and image and composition and linguistic choices to move the reader through the content.

  Lidia Yuknavitch

  Moving, Practice, Choices

  Source: therumpus.net

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• I travel because I like to move from place to place, I enjoy the sense of freedom it gives me, it pleases me to be rid of ties, responsibilities, duties, I like the unknown; I meet odd people who amuse me for a moment and sometimes suggest a theme for a composition; I am often tired of myself and I have a notion that by travel I can add to my personality and so change myself a little. I do not bring back from the journey quite the same self that I took

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Change, Moving, Tired

  W. Somerset Maugham (1941). “the Gentleman in the Parlour”

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• Since the discovery of oxygen the civilised world has undergone a revolution in manners and customs. The knowledge of the composition of the atmosphere, of the solid crust of the earth, of water, and of their influence upon the life of plants and animals, was linked to that discovery. The successful pursuit of innumerable trades and manufactures, the profitable separation of metals from their ores, also stand in the closest connection therewith.

  Justus von Liebig

  Successful, Animal, Discovery

  Justus von Liebig (1859). “Familiar Letters on Chemistry, in its relation to Physiology, Dietetics, Agriculture, Commerce and Political Economy: Edited by John Blyth”, p.5

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• The more light in your composition, the more generous you are. That is the first sign of a true light warrior. They give without waiting for you to ask. They give without expecting to be repaid. They give to strangers and even offer help to enemies. And sadly, because their light is so bright, they also attract tons of bugs and flies their way.

  Suzy Kassem

  Warrior, Light, Giving

  FaceBook post by Suzy Kassem from Oct 03, 2011

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• I assure you that there's a lot involved in compositions with figures. ... It's like weaving... you must control and keep an eye on several things at once.

  Vincent Van Gogh

  Eye, Weaving, Figures

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• I am the most travelled of all my contemporaries; I have extended my field of enquiry wider than anybody else, I have seen more countries and climes, and have heard more speeches of learned men. No one has surpassed me in the composition of lines, according to demonstration, not even the Egyptian knotters of ropes, or geometers.

  Democritus

  Country, Learning, Science

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• We often hear the terms 'positional' and 'tactical' used as opposites. But this is as wrong as to consider a painting's composition unrelated to its subject. Just as there is no such thing as 'artistic' art, so there is no such thing as 'positional' chess.

  Samuel Reshevsky

  Art, Opposites, Tactics

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• None of these situations are identical. You cannot take one set of issues from one country and apply it to another. They are all different, in terms of history, and the religious compositions of the populations involved.

  Aga Khan IV

  Country, Religious, Issues

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• The people of Canada do not wish as a result of mass immigration to make a fundamental alteration in the character of our population. Large scale immigration from the Orient would change the fundamental composition of the Canadian population.

  William Lyon Mackenzie King

  Character, People, Wish

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• I'm just wowed by the universe. I'm just glad to do something I love to do. I love color, I love painting, I love shapes, I love composition, I love the people around me. I'm adoring it all. My legacy is in the hands of other people.

  Peter Max

  Hands, Color, People

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• Liszt commenting on the music of Frédéric Chopin: He confided . . . those inexpressible sorrows to which the pious give vent in their communication with their Maker. What they never say except upon their knees, he said in his palpitating compositions.

  Frederic Chopin

  Music, Communication, Giving

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• What my eyes seek in these encounters is not just the beauty traditionally revered by wildlife photographers. The perfection I seek in my photographic composition is a means to show the strength and dignity of animals in nature.

  Frans Lanting

  Mean, Eye, Animal

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• To the average mind popular music would mean compositions vulgarly conceived and commonplace in their treatment. That is absolutely false.

  John Philip Sousa

  Mean, Average, Mind

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