# Composers and quotes



## Handel (Apr 18, 2007)

What is your favorite composer's quote?

Of course, one must be careful with quotes since many of them, especially from the 18th century and before, are spurious or at least difficult to prove.

Here are some quotes I like:

--One I find rather funnny is the description of harspichord by Beecham: "Two skeletons copulating on a corrugated tin roof".

--One I like from Handel:

Finding it convenient to dine at a tavern, Handel ordered dinner for three. The wait became so long, he became impatient and sent for the host. "Why do you keep me so long waiting?" he asked, with the impetuosity of a hungry man. "We are waiting till the company arrives," replied the innkeeper.

"Then bring up the dinner, prestissimo, said Handel, "I am the company."

--Tchaikovsky: Handel is only fourth rate. He is not even interesting.

-- Johann Sebastian Bach is attributed with the following remark:

"[Handel] is the only person I would wish to see before I die, and the only person I would wish to be, were I not Bach."

Upon hearing the above statement, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is said to have exclaimed:

"Truly, I would say the same myself if I were permitted to put in a word"

--

I heard him [Morell] say that one fine summer morning he was roused out of bed at five o'clock by Handel, who came in his carriage a short distance from London. The doctor went to the window and spoke to Handel, who would not leave his carriage. Handel was at the time composing an oratorio. When the doctor asked him what he wanted, he said,

"What de devil means de vord [word] billow?"

which was in the oratorio the doctor has written for him. The doctor, after laughing at so ludicrous a reason for disturbing him, told him that billow meant wave, a wave of the sea.

"Oh, de vave",

said Handel, and bade his coachman return, without addressing another word to the doctor.

Source: John Taylor, Jr., Records of My Life, 2 vols. (1832)


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## Edward Elgar (Mar 22, 2006)

My favorite is from Sibelius:

"Pay no attention to critics. No statue was ever erected for a critic!"


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## Leporello87 (Mar 25, 2007)

I am not sure right now, I will have to think on this more. Good thread!



Handel said:


> Johann Sebastian Bach is attributed with the following remark:
> 
> "[Handel] is the only person I would wish to see before I die, and the only person I would wish to be, were I not Bach."


Haha, I love this one! It would be awesome if he said this.


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

This is a thread after my own heart, since I've made it a part of my "M.O." to put a rotating sequence of qoutes in my signature field. I'm not saying that my current one is my favorite, but I've cycled through 4 so far. In terms of a quote _about_ a composer, I kind of like the one attributed to Oscar Levant, concerning the output of Leonard Bernstein. Relative to the successes of Candide/On the Town/West Side Story, placed in contrast to unpopular big-scale works such as "Chichester Psalms," he said:

"He can do anything he _doesn't_ put his mind to!"

Finally, keep watching this space-
l
l
v


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