Composer Quotes

When I am no more, you will hear said of my work: "After all, it is only so much..." You will detach yourself from it, perhaps... All that has no importance. I have done what I could... and so, judge, my God.

The habit some writers indulge in of perpetual quotation is one it behooves lovers of good literature to protest against, for it is an insidious habit which in the end must cloud the stream of thought, or at least check spontaneity. If it be true that le style c'est l homme, what is likely to happen if l homme is for ever eking out his own personality with that of some other individual?

We've got to have
We plot to have
For it's so dreary not to have
That certain thing called the Boy Friend.

See, the night doth enfold us! See, all the world lies sleeping!

They want me to write differently. Certainly I could, but I must not. God has chosen me from thousands and given me, of all people, this talent. It is to Him that I must give account. How then would I stand there before Almighty God, if I followed the others and not Him?

Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner
It is improper, to expressly pursue the Urlinie in performance and to single out its tones... for the purpose of communicating the Urlinie to the listener." Rather, "for the performer, the Urlinie provides, first of all, a sense of direction. It serves a somewhat equivalent function to that which a road map serves for a mountain climber.

All that I write whether poetry or music centred around God. This is an act of faith in me. Music is not worth its name otherwise.

Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma
Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma
My true function within a society which embraces all of us is to continue an age-old tradition. This tradition is to create images from the depths of the imagination and to give them form, whether visual, intellectual or musical.

There are no compensations to weigh against advancing years – no, not one.

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.

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

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
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.

The symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything.
To Sibelius

There's an old mill by the stream, Nellie Dean,
Where we used to sit and dream, Nellie Dean.
And the waters as they flow
Seem to murmur sweet and low,
'You're my heart's desire; I love you, Nellie Dean.'

The songs I had are withered Or vanished clean. Yet there are bright tracks Where I have been.

What good it does one to have a hearty, uncontrollable fit of laughter.

Composing a piece of music is very feminine. It is sensitive, emotional, contemplative. By comparison, doing housework is positively masculine.

It is evidently known beyond contradiction that New Orleans is the cradle of jazz and I, myself, happened to be the creator in the year 1902.

Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton
Men grow cold as girls grow old
And we all lose our charms in the end.
But square cut or pear shape,
These rocks won't lose their shape,
Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

Pardon me boy is that the Chattanooga Choo-choo,
Track twenty nine,
Boy you can gimme a shine.
I can afford to board a Chattanooga Choo-choo,
I've got my fare and just a trifle to spare.
You leave the Pennsylvania station 'bout a quarter to four,
Read a magazine and then you're in Baltimore,
Dinner in the diner nothing could be finer
Than to have your ham'n eggs in Carolina.

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

The night is like a lovely tune,
Beware my foolish heart!
How white the ever-constant moon,
Take care, my foolish heart!

The sun has got its hat on
Hip hip hip hooray
The sun has got its hat on
And it's coming out to play.

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

Percy Grainger
Percy Grainger