Thomas Beecham Quotes

16 Sourced Quotes

There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between.

Thomas Beecham
The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes.

Thomas Beecham
Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and quits the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.

Thomas Beecham
Too much counterpoint; what is worse, Protestant counterpoint.

Thomas Beecham
The trouble with women in an orchestra is that if they are attractive it will upset my players and if they're not it will upset me.

Thomas Beecham
Good music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and quits the memory with difficulty.

Thomas Beecham
Why do we have to have all these third-rate foreign conductors around—when we have so many second-rate ones of our own?

Thomas Beecham
The musical equivalent of the towers of St Pancras Station

Thomas Beecham
The grand tune is the only thing in music that the great public really understands.

Thomas Beecham
What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about.

Thomas Beecham
I found it as alluring as a wayward woman and determined to tame it.

Thomas Beecham
No composer has written as much as 100 bars of worthwhile music since 1925.

Thomas Beecham
The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought.

Thomas Beecham
To the tenor Heddle Nash during the production of Puccini's opera 'La Bohème':
'I can't hear you. Sing up!'
'How do you expect me to sing my best in this position, Sir Thomas?'
'In that position, my dear fellow, I have performed some of my greatest achievements.'

Thomas Beecham
Hark! the herald angels sing!
Beecham's Pills are just the thing,
Two for a woman, one for a child…
Peace on earth and mercy mild!

Thomas Beecham
A musicologist is a man who can read music but can't hear it.

Thomas Beecham