Composer Quotes

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Ludwig van Beethoven

Johann Sebastian Bach

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Frédéric Chopin

George Frideric Handel

Giuseppe Verdi

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

I have departed from this planet and I have left behind my poor earthly ones with their occupations which are as many as they are useless; at last I am living in the scintillating splendor of the stars, each of which used to seem to me as large as millions of suns.

The silver swan, who, living had no note,
When death approached unlocked her silent throat.

Orlando Gibbons

Wagner has lovely moments but awful quarters of an hour.

Gioachino Rossini

This fact, the surfacing of structure in an undeliberate action, is too big to take on here, but it was enough to convince me that the structuralists—the advocates of planning music before you hear or care what the plan gives you—were right: do not rely on unplanned music; it comes out as though it were planned, but planned by someone you cross the street to avoid.

Please accept a promise from me in his name that I will always live in the religion in which he died.

Giacomo Meyerbeer

There is no doubt that the first requirement for a composer is to be dead.

Arthur Honegger

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

I never compose in the abstract; that is to say, the musical thought never appears otherwise than in a suitable external form. In this way I invent the musical idea and the instrumentation simultaneously.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

"Cage's Music of Changes was a further indication that the arts in general were beginning to consciously deal with the "given" material and, to varying degrees, liberating them from the inherited, functional concepts of control."

As a musician I tell you that if you were to suppress adultery, fanaticism, crime, evil, the supernatural, there would no longer be the means for writing one note.

Like all music, the figured bass should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the recreation of the soul; where this is not kept in mind there is no true music, but only an infernal clamour and ranting.

Johann Sebastian Bach

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

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The most terrible thing of all is happy love, for then there is fear in everything.

Should swim along, staying and conquering
In this complex ocean of life with desire not attaching.
Lovingly in this birth, like a lotus leaf on a drop of rain
Singing Rama's name, those who want to win and gain.
Like the cashew nut on its fruit, just touching the life path
Not keeping any desire, those devoted to the brave Srinath.
Like a fish that grabs the bait meat and gets hooked sadly

Through the years we all will be together,
If the Fates allow.
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough,
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

The Prince of Wales' brother, along with some other,
Slaps me on the back, and says 'Come and see mother.'
I'm Bert, Bert, and Royalty's hurt when they ask me to dine,
I say 'No –
I've just had a banana with Lady Diana,
I'm Burlington Bertie from Bow.'

William Hargreaves

Salvation Army Booth objected to the devil having all the good tunes. I object to jazz and vaudeville having all the best instruments.

I dared much, but the next time, you will see, I will dare even more...

Life is just a bowl of cherries,
Don't take it serious; it's too mysterious.

Do I have to tell you about the spiritual cannibalism of the culture, our culture, which has been bombarding us with ultrasensory overstimulation aiming to reprocess us into full-time consumption machines, stealing above all from us our time (not an inch of time without an imprint of message), and even our very sense of time (to be measured in lengths of no more than one message unit each) under the guise of entertainment, and even of 'art,' commoditizing the eternal, hyping the primal? Our time is the sine qua non of our identity. We need to take extreme measures to reclaim it for ourselves and each other.

Benjamin Boretz

A child isn't born bitter. I point no fingers as to who tainted the clean, pure pool of my childhood. Let's just say that when I realized that I didn't want to grow up, the damage was already done. Knowing that being grown up was no swell place to be means that you are grown up enough to notice. And you can't go back from there. You have to forge another route, draw your own map.

Music is made up of a large number of individual sounds, and is either a single melody or a part-song.

Johannes Tinctoris

When discussing a march that he had composed for his regiment:

General: Isn't it a little fast, Korngold? The men can't march to that.
Korngold: Ah yes, well, you see Sir, this was composed for the retreat.

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