100 Composers Quotes for You to Enjoy

I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons. First to discourage the composer from writing any more and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven. Jascha Heifetz

Music is at once the product of feeling and knowledge, for it requires from its disciples, composers and performers alike, not only talent and enthusiasm, but also that knowledge and perception which are the result of protracted study and reflection. Alban Berg

Pianists call me a composer, composers call me a pianist. The classicists think me a futurist, and the futurists call me a reactionary. Anton Rubinstein

Me Think Composer Composers Pianist Reactionary Call

I think that what's been holding composers back a great deal is that they feel they must have a new style every year. This, in my case, would be hopeless. In fact, it is said that I have no style at all, but that doesn't matter. I just go on doing, as they say, my thing. I believe this takes a certain courage. Samuel Barber

Great Courage Matter Great Deal Hopeless Style Year Holding Believe Every Think Back Say Must Would Would-Be Composers Case Fact Takes Feel New Deal Said Doing Go Been Just In Fact Certain They Say Thing

Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle. Thomas Beecham

Composers Write Boy Errand Tunes Whistle Should

I grew up on Bach and Beethoven, and now I'm listening to more modern composers who I can't even name. But since I'm constantly doing music, it's difficult to have that quality time to listen to music and do classical stuff. A. R. Rahman

Music Time Quality Listening Difficult Bach Constantly Composers Classical More Stuff Since Name Quality Time Doing Beethoven Up Modern Listen Grew Who Even Now

The more dollars the studio producers put in, the less freedom we have. If the budget hits $100m, they get scared - they'll take the existing score of a successful movie and expect composers to copy it, like wallpaper. The biggest challenge for any composer in Hollywood is to be as creative as possible within those boundaries. A. R. Rahman

Freedom Creative Challenge Those Possible Scared Composer Composers More Take Studio Put Boundaries Budget Like Within Dollars Score Existing Expect Get Hits Wallpaper Any Movie Biggest Biggest Challenge Hollywood Successful Producers Less Copy

I want young Indian composers to be able to do more than just film music. I want to give them the skills that will enable them to create their own palette of sounds instead of having to write formulaic music. It doesn't matter if they become sound engineers, producers, composers or performers - I want them to be as imaginative as they like. A. R. Rahman

Music Matter Will Become Own Young Indian Able Composers Give Having More Write Instead Performers Like Enable Sound Sounds Than Just Want Them Create Producers Skills Engineers Film Film Music Palette Imaginative

As a kid, I loved classical music. Composers like Beethoven were like rock stars to me. Then there were the real rock stars: The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and Bob Dylan. Alan Menken

Composers today get a TV script on Friday and have to record on Tuesday. It's just dreadful to impose on gifted talent and expect decent music under these conditions. Alex North

Today Music Gifted Dreadful TV Composers Record Talent Impose Friday Conditions Expect Get Tuesday Just Decent Script

When I began, the guitar was en-closed in a vicious circle. There were no composers writing for the guitar, be-cause there were no virtuoso guitarists. Andres Segovia

Writing Guitar Circle Virtuoso Composers Were Began Vicious

I think the thing's that perhaps sad really is that younger people haven't come in and I think it must have been absolutely fantastic to have worked in the 50's when you had all of the great Broadway composers and when West Side Story didn't win the Tony Award. Andrew Lloyd Webber

Sad Great You People Win Think Side Broadway Must Composers Absolutely Had Come Perhaps Been West West Side West Side Story Story Fantastic Younger Worked Younger People Really Award Thing Tony

Composers are always going back to the past. Anne Dudley

Past Back Composers Always Going

Poets these days, like artists and composers, have won for themselves almost unlimited freedom. You can pass yourself off as a painter without being able to draw, as a composer without being conscious of key relationships, and as a poet without making yourself familiar with traditional verse forms. Anne Stevenson

Freedom You Yourself Key Poet Relationships Unlimited Draw Able Composer Composers Poets Almost Days Like Without Pass Making Traditional Verse Off Won Familiar Artists Being Forms Themselves Painter Conscious

We are increasingly likely to find ourselves in places with background music. No composers have thought to write for these modern spaces, which represent 30% of our musical experience. Brian Eno

Music Experience Thought Increasingly Our Musical Background Musical Experience Ourselves Find Composers Write Likely Modern Represent Spaces Which Places

I got interested in the idea of music that could make itself, in a sense, in the mid 1960s really, when I first heard composers like Terry Riley, and when I first started playing with tape recorders. Brian Eno

Music First Sense Composers Could Idea Like Make Got Terry Heard Tape Itself Mid Interested Really Started Playing

With recording, everything changed. The prospect of music being detachable from time and place meant that one could start to think of music as a part of one's furniture. It's an idea that many composers have felt reluctant about because it seemed to them to diminish the importance of music. Brian Eno

Music Time Recording Think Changed Everything Furniture Diminish Composers About Seemed Reluctant Could Part Idea Prospect Importance Because Felt Being Place Them Meant Many Start

The Western musical canon came about not merely by accumulation, but by opposition and subversion, both to the ruling powers on whom composers depended for their livelihoods and to other musics. Brian Ferneyhough

Other Musical Ruling Musics Composers About Both Merely Powers Came Opposition Western Accumulate Depended Canon Subversion Whom Livelihood

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