# Curious quotes



## Aurelian (Sep 9, 2011)

If you have heard a quote from a composer, conductor, or musician that made you say "Hmmm!" could you post it?

Here are two:

J.S. Bach: "Anybody who works just as hard will get just as far."

Rachmaninov on Scriabin's super-hard opus 42 number 5 etude: "Difficult etude! I spent an hour on it."


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Another well-known quote by Bach: “It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.” I believe he was sincere in actually believing this and that it’s true if one has musical talent and practices.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I've got a whole book of 'em:








So many great quotes, but the wittiest has to be "Wagner's music is better than it sounds." - Mark Twaint


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## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

"Does he believe that I think about his miserable fiddle when the muse strikes me?" - Ludwig van Beethoven in relation to Ignaz Schuppanzigh after the latter complained about a particularly difficult passage in one of Beethoven's Op. 59 quartets.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I have nothing to say/ and I am saying it." -- John Cage

I've often noted that quote in reference to Cage's famous "silent" piece, 4'33". Indeed, the remark says it all about the work. No?

But, the actual quotation precedes the composition of 4'33" (written 1952) by a few years and was first delivered in a Cage essay: "Lecture on Nothing" (1949). The full quote runs as: "I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry as I need it."

Cage delivered the essay as a lecture in 1949 to the 8th Street Artist’s Club, known as "The Club", established in Greenwich Village in 1948, as a place for artists to meet and talk. Perhaps his composition 4'33" was on Cage's mind at the time, but it wasn't officially penned till a few years later. Of course, musical compositions (like Russian novels and Sistine Chapel ceiling frescos) often take years to conceive and fashion. Still, Cage's comment is intriguing and, I suggest, profound.

I believe my own comments upon Cage's musical work are even more profound than anything Cage himself said, and they are as follows:


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Any time I teach a class, I remember this quote by Carl Nielsen: The simplest is the hardest, the universal is most lasting, the straightest the strongest, like the pillars that support the dome.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

mbhaub said:


> I've got a whole book of 'em:
> View attachment 122293
> 
> 
> So many great quotes, but the wittiest has to be "Wagner's music is better than it sounds." - Mark Twaint


Except that Mark Twain didn't say it. It was another humorist named Bill Nye (not the science guy). Twain liked Wagner and even attended a Bayreuth Festival. His account of that is a great read, as always:

http://www.twainquotes.com/Travel1891/Dec1891.html


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

"My 10th Sonata is a sonata of insects. Insects are born from the sun... they are the sun's kisses. How unified world-understanding is when you look at things this way."
- A.N. Scriabin

Yep.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Woodduck said:


> Except that Mark Twain didn't say it. It was another humorist named Bill Nye (not the science guy). Twain liked Wagner and even attended a Bayreuth Festival. His account of that is a great read, as always:
> 
> http://www.twainquotes.com/Travel1891/Dec1891.html


It was quoted in Twain's autobiography and credited to Nye, but somehow it got attributed to him. Still funny.

Eugene Ormandy was a also a great source of bizarre sayings. I've known enough people who played under him to believe it.
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/eugene-ormandy-quotes


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

"In 'thinking up' music I usually have some kind of a brass band with wings on it in back of my mind"
~Charles Ives


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

One more classic by Ives: “Stand up and take your dissonance like a man.”


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Larkenfield said:


> One more classic by Ives: "Stand up and take your dissonance like a man."


Larkenfield, I'm sure I read something like "you godamn sissies, stand up" etc. but perhaps not, a lot of so called quotes are often apocryphal or distorted.
This always makes me giggle...

"...the music teacher came twice each week in an attempt to bridge the awful gap between Dorothy and Chopin".

Also this by Ansermet, whose English was not the best as was evidenced in an altercation in the Kingsway Hall. His problem was that he prided himself in the use of idioms which often went wrong.

"You think I know F*** nothing, but you are wrong, I know F*** all". (read it with no -ing at the end of the F word)

Finally, Beecham..

"The British don't like music, only the noise it makes".


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

mbhaub said:


> It was quoted in Twain's autobiography and credited to Nye, but somehow it got attributed to him. Still funny.
> 
> Eugene Ormandy was a also a great source of bizarre sayings. I've known enough people who played under him to believe it.
> https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/eugene-ormandy-quotes


Great link mbhaub, had me in stitches....


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Some of my favorites:


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Sir Colin Davis once told Michael Steinberg "[William] Walton is a one-work composer [the Second Symphony] . . . like Humperdinck and Britten."


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Olias said:


> Some of my favorites:
> 
> View attachment 122326
> 
> ...


That Brahms quote is so great :lol:


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Glenn Gould referred to Adolf Von Henselt's piano concerto as "Henselt's F-minor exercise in narcissism".
I don't know why, I just read it. I know that it's considered a very difficult work.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

MarkW said:


> Sir Colin Davis once told Michael Steinberg "[William] Walton is a one-work composer [the Second Symphony] . . . like Humperdinck and Britten."


Another conductor to conductor one that I heard from Simon Rattle. He was barely 20 and preparing the Mahler 7th when he met the great William Steinberg. When Steinberg heard he was going to do the 7th, he lashed out at Rattle and said, "Es ist nicht fuer kinder!" (It is not for children!) ouch.


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## Minor Sixthist (Apr 21, 2017)

"Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes." - Aaron Copland


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Stravinsky, asked what he thought of Copland: "Ugh -- Copland is the Puccini of music."


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

mikeh375 said:


> Larkenfield, I'm sure I read something like "you godamn sissies, stand up" etc. but perhaps not, a lot of so called quotes are often apocryphal or distorted.
> This always makes me giggle...


Hi! I came across the quote and it's a good one. Speaking is Charles Ives, berating a concertgoer who was catcalling a Carl Ruggles piece:

"You goddamn sissy-eared mollycoddle! When you hear strong music like this, stand up and use your ears like a man!"


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Shostakovich reportedly said that if they cut off his hands, he would hold the pencil with his teeth.

I also like the quote by Stravinsky's wife: "Our house knows no holidays".

Glazunov had some savage quotes. I do not have them on this computer, they were from some book; he supposedly kept works by various composers sorted by surnames except for the letter "i"---"irrelevant", where some rather famous names could be found. And also he said about Debussy "Could it be that Rimsky and I influenced the orchestration of all these contemporary degenerates?".


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

"There are three levels of intelligence: 'stupido', 'stupidissimo', and 'tenore'." -- Arturo Toscanini


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## Swosh (Feb 25, 2018)

So everyone is stupid? haha


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Schumann describing Haydn: "...an old family friend whom one receives gladly and respectfully but who has nothing new to tell us."


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

"Karajan? He enthuses the masses. So does Coca-Cola." --Sergiu Celibidache


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

KenOC said:


> "There are three levels of intelligence: 'stupido', 'stupidissimo', and 'tenore'." -- Arturo Toscanini


"Toscanini is just a time-beater" -- Bernard Herrmann


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Larkenfield said:


> Hi! I came across the quote and it's a good one. Speaking is Charles Ives, berating a concertgoer who was catcalling a Carl Ruggles piece:
> 
> "You goddamn sissy-eared mollycoddle! When you hear strong music like this, stand up and use your ears like a man!"


One wonders what he would have said to a woman.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Woodduck said:


> One wonders what he would have said to a woman.


How about: "Stand up and take your dissonance like an Amazon." hehe


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Imagine the spice if he was a member here.


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## NLAdriaan (Feb 6, 2019)

When in Amsterdam, Otto Klemperer was asked what he liked most of the Dutch composer Alphons Diepenbrock. His answer was quite clear: 'Die Strasse!'


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## Forsooth (Apr 17, 2018)

Are you one who finds so much late 20th century "modern" music abysmal? Do you find that you can easily do without Hindemith? Schoenberg? Ives? Some of the music that others adore, sounds to your ears like Plink, Plank, Plunk? Or worse?

Not to worry! Debussy has your back: "Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part."


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Beauty is in the ears of the listener...


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

mikeh375 said:


> Beauty is in the ears of the listener...


Another Charles Ives quote: "Beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ear lie back in an easy chair . . ..frequently when a new or unfamiliar work is accepted as beautiful on its first hearing, its fundamental quality is one that tends to put the mind to sleep."


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/40589.Ludwig_van_Beethoven


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

"I don't know what music is"
-Ludwig van Beethoven


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

"Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth". - Ludwig van Beethoven


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Interviewer - "I'm intrigued by one title from 1951, your 'Grande Symphonie Militaire' op69.
Ligeti - "Oh that was a joke, the opus number refers of course to the sexual position."


Callas on hearing a recording of her rival Tebaldi...

"What a lovely voice, but who cares?"

A.Berg...

"When I compose, I feel like Beethoven. Only afterwards do I realise that I am at best only a Bizet."


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

BachIsBest said:


> "I don't know what music is"
> -Ludwig van Beethoven


Interesting quote, but I'm looking for it in the net for it's context and can't find it. Could you please provide a source?


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

mikeh375 said:


> Interviewer - "I'm intrigued by one title from 1951, your 'Grande Symphonie Militaire' op69.
> Ligeti - "Oh that was a joke, the opus number refers of course to the sexual position."
> 
> Callas on hearing a recording of her rival Tebaldi...
> ...


All hilarious. :lol:


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

mikeh375 said:


> A.Berg...
> 
> "When I compose, I feel like Beethoven. Only afterwards do I realise that I am at best only a Bizet."


Other examples of composer modesty:

"Beside him we are all poor mandolin players." (Puccini, on Wagner)

"I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer." (Richard Strauss, on himself)

On the other hand, we have:

"I have worked hard. Anyone who works just as hard will do equally well." (J. S. Bach)

Since none of us are dumb enough to believe anything so absurd, we have to assume that Bach himself was too smart to believe it. Reading between the lines, we might imagine that he said it to give some encouragement to a frustrated music student, or to discourage an embarrassingly fulsome flatterer, or to make an ironic joke. It could also have been a pointed comment on the laziness of other musicians.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Woodduck said:


> Other examples of composer modesty:
> 
> "Beside him we are all poor mandolin players." (Puccini, on Wagner)
> 
> ...


Maybe he really did mean it. Maybe there was a long excised part of the quote about piety. I wouldn't be surprised at all were Bach really that humble. Of course, your irony hypothesis is equally plausible.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

"Borodin is a fifty-year old professor of chemistry at the Medical Academy. He also has talent - and a strong one, too - but it has perished due to insufficient knowledge [of music theory], as well as due to Fate, which has landed him in a chemistry faculty instead of making him an active musician". --- Piotr Czajkowski

"John, it's so nice to meet you, I realize now I'm in front of the god of film music!".---tells Dirk Brosse----"He [John Williams] looked at me and said, "Maybe… maybe film music, but the real great masters are truly others"."
Choir singer, between AOTC sessions: "Mr Williams! Your music will last for hundreds and hundreds of years!" To which [Williams] retorted "_Yes _, but will we still be around in hundreds of years?".
„When I was working in Hollywood, I saw how successful Andre Previn was - and with seemingly little effort. I felt I had to work harder because I was less gifted. I had to work harder to do the same work. I had to be prepared to spend more hours. It's still that way. I'm a natural musician but not _that _natural. Maybe it appears to be obsessive. Maybe it's a kind of compensation for being a less quick study than a colleague". --- John Williams

„To me it's like this: If you bust your gut and you lose, you feel badly. But if you don't bust your gut and you lose, you feel much worse". --- John Williams

"(...) a very simple little sequence of notes, but I've spent more time on those little bits of musical grammar to get them just right so that they seem inevitable, seem like they have always been there; they are so simple... And I don't know how many permutations will I go through with a six-note motif like that... One note down, one note up... and spend lots of time on those little simplicities, which are often the hardest to capture-I think-_for anybody_".- John Williams

"(...) any method would be welcomed that aimed at keeping our noble guild of composers free of nitwits and the ungifted. No composer-to-be or future theory teacher, who after some practising is not able to do the exercises in the present book easily and thoroughly should be admitted to more advanced theoretical work. In a higher sense he ought to be regarded as unfit for any professional musical activity---which process of reckless weeding out could only be advantageous to our entire musical culture" --- Paul Hindemith


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

"Take good care you never invite that conceited puppy to the house again", Gustav Mahler to his wife on Arnold Schoenberg. He was invited back soon after, and the two composers became friends.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

pretty female violinist to beecham

"will you be godfather to my child"

Beecham

"lets leave god out of it"

-------------------------------------

sure most have you have heard this - very funny though.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

"If he'd been making shell cases during the 
war it would have been better for music." 
— Saint-Saëns on Ravel


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

Allerius said:


> Interesting quote, but I'm looking for it in the net for it's context and can't find it. Could you please provide a source?


The afterword to Jan Swafford's _The Vintage Guide to Classical Music_ begins with this quote. Unfortunately, he provides no source so this is the best I can do.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

“Only the pure of heart can make a good soup.” — Beethoven

“During the rests—pray. — Eugene Ormandy


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

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

“The emotions — love, mirth, the heroic, wonder, tranquility, fear, anger, sorrow, disgust — are in the audience.” 

"In the dark, all cats are black.” ― John Cage


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

"Everyone will tell you that I am not a musician. That is correct. From the very beginning of my career I classed myself as a phonometrographer. My work is completely phonometrical. The first time I used a phonoscope, I examined a B flat of medium size. I can assure you that I have never seen anything so revolting. I called in my man to show it to him. On my phono-scales a common or garden F sharp registered 93 kilos. It came out of a fat tenor whom I also weighed. Do you know how to clean sounds? It's a filthy business. Stretching them out is cleaner; indexing them is a meticulous task and needs good eyesight. Here, we are in the realm of phonotechnique. On the question of sound explosions, which can often be so unpleasant, some cotton-wool in the ears can deaden their effect quite satisfactorily. Here, we are in the realm of pyrophony."

~Satie


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

RICK RIEKERT said:


> "Everyone will tell you that I am not a musician. That is correct. From the very beginning of my career I classed myself as a phonometrographer. My work is completely phonometrical. The first time I used a phonoscope, I examined a B flat of medium size. I can assure you that I have never seen anything so revolting. I called in my man to show it to him. On my phono-scales a common or garden F sharp registered 93 kilos. It came out of a fat tenor whom I also weighed. Do you know how to clean sounds? It's a filthy business. Stretching them out is cleaner; indexing them is a meticulous task and needs good eyesight. Here, we are in the realm of phonotechnique. On the question of sound explosions, which can often be so unpleasant, some cotton-wool in the ears can deaden their effect quite satisfactorily. Here, we are in the realm of pyrophony."
> 
> ~Satie


 By the power not invested in me, I hereby grant this as the grand prize of curious quotes.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Larkenfield said:


> By the power not invested in me, I hereby grant this as the grand prize of curious quotes.


"Vous constatez avec autorite, sans discuter."

~Satie


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

I like this one from Rachmaninoff, not least because of a nagging suspicion that he did not intend it to be taken seriously. It was quoted by von Riesemann in 1934.

"A good conductor ought to be a good chauffeur; the qualities that make the one also make the other. They are concentration, an incessant control of attention, and presence of mind; the conductor only has to add a little sense of music".


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## radiodurans (Dec 8, 2018)

I think there is an anonymous one: "Last night the orchestra played Beethoven. Beethoven lost."


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## chu42 (Aug 14, 2018)

Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham had some things to say about music.

On Bach:
"Too much counterpoint; what is worse, Protestant counterpoint."

On Beethoven's Seventh: 
"What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about."

On whether or not he had conducted Stockhausen: 
"No, but I trod in some once."

On Vaughan William's "Pastoral" Symphony: 
"A city life for me!"

On passing a grave which said "An Organist and a Wonderful Musician":
"What? in the same grave?"

On brass bands:
"They are all very well in their place - outdoors and several miles away."

On the harpsichord:
“Two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm. ”

On a certain female cellist:
"Lady, what you have between your legs can give pleasure to thousands, and yet you only scratch at it."

All who love curious and/or scathing quotes should immediately purchase The Lexicon of Musical Invective by Nicholas Slominsky.


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