Composer Quotes

My darling, I will try to guess
What do you want or wish.
I know you prefer to dream
About a Gold Fish.
But I believe that you will find
The famous and gold key.
So, you will open the door.
You saw it in your dreams.
I know: you shall overcome
All troubles in your way.
But do remember every time
About must and may.

Volodymyr Melnykov

Georgia, Georgia, no peace I find,
Just an old sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind.

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

Giacomo Puccini

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?

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.

Heinrich Schenker

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

You see, it is not enough to be a great composer. To write music like that you must be a chosen instrument of God.

I'm goin' to Tishomingo,
Because I'm sad today.
I wish to linger,
Way down old Dixie way.
Oh my weary heart cries out in pain,
Oh how I wish that I was back again.
With a race,
In a place,
Where they make you welcome all the time.

Spencer Williams

When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we'll see
No I won't be afraid, no I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me.

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."

Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori

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

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.'

Harry Armstrong

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

Unlike American film score composers, Japanese film score composers are given only three or four days in which to write the music for a movie. Because of this, I have almost always been very frustrated while writing a score. I therefore can't select any of my scores as favorites.

Jazz is the best of all nourishments. It feeds the creative spirit like nothing else can.

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

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.

Jazz is about the only form of art existing today in which there is this freedom of the individual without the loss of group contact.

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