18th-century Composer Quotes

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Ludwig van Beethoven
Joseph Haydn
Frederick the Great
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
François-Joseph Fétis

To do good whenever one can, to love liberty above all else, never to deny the truth, even though it be before the throne.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
I too had to work hard, so as not to have to work hard any longer.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
According to my principles, every master has his true and certain value. Praise and criticism cannot change any of that. Only the work itself praises and criticizes the master, and therefore I leave to everyone his own value.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Let us, at any rate, give heed to suffer joyfully the crosses that God sends us, because they all, if we are saved, will become for us eternal joys. When infirmities, pains, or any adversities afflict us, let us lift up our eyes to heaven and say, "One day all these pains will have an end, and after them I hope to enjoy God forever."

The greatest and noblest pleasure which men can have in this world is to discover new truths; and the next is to shake off old prejudices.

Frederick the Great
Frederick the Great
But what have those colorful ballets to do with the opera's? Ballets, that do not concern the opera at the least. Do they not spoil all possible action, that they in their course violently interrupt?

A cook, when I dine, seems to me a divine being, who from the depths of his kitchen rules the human race. One considers him as a minister of heaven, because his kitchen is a temple, in which his ovens are the altar.

To arms! to arms! ye brave!
The avenging sword unsheathe!
March on! march on! all hearts resolved
On victory or death!

Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
Give Him thanks, all ye His works so wondrous! Sing His honor, sing His glory, bless and magnify His Name! Jehovah's praise endures forevermore, Amen, Amen!.

Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Style is the dress of thought; a modest dress,
Neat, but not gaudy, will true critics please.

In the passage quoted here from Monteverdi's madrigal [Cruda amarilli, mm.9-19 and 24-30], one sees a tonality determined by the characteristic of the accord parfait on the tonic, by the sixth chord assigned to the third and seventh degrees, by the optional choice of the accord parfait or the sixth chord on the sixth degree, and finally, by the accord parfait, and above all, by the unprepared seventh chord (with major third) on the dominant.

François-Joseph Fétis
François-Joseph Fétis
Thee, wond'rous chemist! Who canst make, at will, Wash-balls from dew-drops; and canst blooms distil; With blooms and dews, Dame Nature's self canst pose, And brew, like spiders, poison from the rose!