# What composer said this quote?



## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

OK, here's an idea for a game.

Someone writes a quote, and everyone else has to guess who said it. We can have several quotes going at the same time.

Here is my first:

"These prefatory essays were written by the composer for those who can't stand his music—and the music for those who can't stand his essays; to those who can't stand either, the whole is respectfully dedicated."


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Must be Charles Ives. (Notes Before a Sonata?)

Next: "Would you applaud a sunrise?"


----------



## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

MarkW said:


> Must be Charles Ives. (Notes Before a Sonata?)
> 
> Next: "Would you applaud a sunrise?"


Correct. I don't know the answer to yours.

This one is guessable, although it may seem harder than it is:

"If Brahms were not a profound thinker, and a great virtuoso in the treatment of harmonic problems, he would have simply repeated this procedure in the recapitulation."


----------



## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

MarkW said:


> Must be Charles Ives. (Notes Before a Sonata?)
> 
> Next: "Would you applaud a sunrise?"


Debussy, maybe? It seems like something he would say - I remember reading that he preferred looking at a sunrise over listening to Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony.


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Yes, Debussy (his fictitious M. Croche). The point was, why applaud a beautiful performance? Doesn't that break the spell?


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Bettina said:


> Debussy, maybe? It seems like something he would say - I remember reading that he preferred looking at a sunrise over listening to Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony.


Wow! Good get! :clap:


----------



## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

regenmusic said:


> "If Brahms were not a profound thinker, and a great virtuoso in the treatment of harmonic problems, he would have simply repeated this procedure in the recapitulation."


I'll take a shot in the dark: Schoenberg?

Here's a fun one: "Some critics have said that I [write 12-tone music], but since I have never analyzed my works from this point of view, I cannot say. I assume that if I am not conscious of it, I do not."


----------



## Holden4th (Jul 14, 2017)

"my dear hands.....farewell my poor hands"


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Holden4th said:


> "my dear hands.....farewell my poor hands"


Isn't that from Rachmaninov?


----------



## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

"Genres are bull****" real quote


----------



## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Eschbeg said:


> I'll take a shot in the dark: Schoenberg?


Bullseye. You should pick stocks with that aim.


----------



## Holden4th (Jul 14, 2017)

Yes, supposedly on his death bed but more likely when he discovered he had incurable cancer.


----------



## Omicron9 (Oct 13, 2016)

"Before I compose a piece, I walk around it several times, accompanied by myself."


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

^^It's either Erik Satie or Groucho Marx.


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

"In opera, there is always too much singing."


----------



## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

KenOC said:


> "In opera, there is always too much singing."


Beethoven?

"My music is best understood by children and animals."


----------



## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

^ Stravinsky?

_Wie ist mir wohl, dass ich ein Deutscher bin." _

How good it makes me feel, that I am a German.

That one should be easy


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

"My music isn't Avant Garde . It's just badly played ."


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Schoenberg (I think), for Superhorn.

The quote about opera was by Debussy.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Cage I think

"Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes"


----------



## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

SiegendesLicht said:


> ^ Stravinsky?
> 
> _Wie ist mir wohl, dass ich ein Deutscher bin." _
> 
> ...


Actually, I don't know if it's Wagner or Schoenberg!


----------



## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

SiegendesLicht said:


> _Wie ist mir wohl, dass ich ein Deutscher bin." _
> 
> How good it makes me feel, that I am a German.


Wagner talking about the experience of seeing Weber's _Der Freischütz_?


----------



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Cage I think
> 
> "Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes"


The one your kidding!


----------



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

"I cannot conceive of music that expresses absolutely nothing"


----------



## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Casebearer said:


> "I cannot conceive of music that expresses absolutely nothing"


Liszt? It seems to fit with his aesthetic of program music.


----------



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Cage I think
> 
> "Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes"


And Andy Warhol then went on to discover how many minutes, namely fifteen.


----------



## Omicron9 (Oct 13, 2016)

hpowders said:


> ^^It's either Erik Satie or Groucho Marx.


hpowders, your first answer was correct.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Omicron9 said:


> hpowders, your first answer was correct.


Yeah, thanks! :tiphat:


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

_"The present day composers refuse to die. They have realised the necessity of banding together and fighting for the right of each individual to secure a fair and free presentation of his work"_


----------



## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Portamento said:


> "I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."


It's either John Cage or President Donald Trump.


----------



## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

hpowders said:


> It's either John Cage or President Donald Trump.


You're right on multiple accounts - it's John Cage, the Trump of the music world.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Portamento said:


> You're right on multiple accounts - it's John Cage, the Trump of the music world.


Trump could have said it if he had the smarts...out with the old (swamp), in with the new.


----------



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Bettina said:


> Liszt? It seems to fit with his aesthetic of program music.


You're close. Quite close and maybe he was even inspired by Liszt.


----------



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> _"The present day composers refuse to die. They have realised the necessity of banding together and fighting for the right of each individual to secure a fair and free presentation of his work"_


Zappa (on Varese). The quote is also the title of a Dutch documentary and videography on Zappa.
http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/videography/VPRO_2000.html


----------



## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

"I am in the smallest room of the house. I have your review in front of me. Soon it will be behind me."


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Believe that was the irrepressible Max Reger. It was said of Max, "A composer whose name is spelled the same forwards and backwards, and whose music sounds the same."


----------



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Portamento said:


> You're right on multiple accounts - it's John Cage, the Trump of the music world.


Make music great again!


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Who said of Charles Villiers Stanford, "His dullness is all the harder to bear because it is the restless, ingenious, trifling, flippant dullness of the Irishman, instead of the stupid, bovine, sleepable-through dullness of the Englishman, or even the aggressive, ambitious, sentimental dullness of the Scot."

Hint: You've heard of this guy. In fact, he's the only critic I know of (contradicting Sibelius) who has a statue erected to him. Though maybe not for his music criticism!


----------



## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Portamento said:


> "I am in the smallest room of the house. I have your review in front of me. Soon it will be behind me."


Surely Groucho!


----------



## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

KenOC said:


> Who said of Charles Villiers Stanford, "His dullness is all the harder to bear because it is the restless, ingenious, trifling, flippant dullness of the Irishman, instead of the stupid, bovine, sleepable-through dullness of the Englishman, or even the aggressive, ambitious, sentimental dullness of the Scot."
> 
> Hint: You've heard of this guy. In fact, he's the only critic I know of (contradicting Sibelius) who has a statue erected to him. Though maybe not for his music criticism!


Pshaw, 'tis Shaw, to be sure!


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Portamento said:


> You're right on multiple accounts - it's John Cage, the Trump of the music world.


My turn:

"Why do so many of us try to explain the beauty of music, thus depriving it of its mystery."


----------

