» On music

… twelve harmonious quotations

Writing about music would seem to be superfluous. But many people do it (including me).

A musician cannot move others unless he too is moved. He must feel all the emotions that he hopes to arouse in his audience, for the revealing of his own humour will stimulate a like mood in the listener.

CPE Bach . 1714-1788 . German musician and composer [pictured]

It doesn’t half get you behind the knees, all this sitting about.

Havergal Brian . 1876-1972 . English composer and journalist on being told he should take a bow before the tumultuous applause of the 5000 strong audience at the premiere of his Gothic symphony *

You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.

John Coltrane . 1926-1967 . American jazz musician and composer . *

Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast.
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.

William Congreve . 1670-1729 . English playwright and poet . The mourning bride

People are wrong when they say that the opera isn’t what it used to be. It is what it used to be—that’s what’s wrong with it!

Noël Coward . 1899-1973 . English actor, playwright and composer of popular music . Design for living

I never understood music. It seemed to me to be the maximum amount of noise conveying the minimum amount of information.

Quentin Crisp . 1908-1999 . English writer, artist’s model, actor and raconteur . The naked civil servant

Music is the space between the notes.

Claude Debussy . 1862-1918 . French composer *

It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.

Dizzy Gillespie . 1917-1993 . American jazz musician . *

It is a mistake to think that the practice of my art has become easy to me. I assure you… no one has given so much care to the study of composition as I. There is scarcely a famous master in music whose works I have not frequently and diligently studied.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . 1756-1791 . Austrian composer and musician . spoken to conductor Kucharz (Prague, 1787) [quoted, Mozart: the man and the artist… (Kerst, 1906)]

On matters of intonation and technicalities I am more than a martinet—I am a martinetissimo.

Leopold Stokowski . 1882-1977 . British-born orchestral conductor *

To listen is an effort, and just to hear is [sic] no merit. A duck hears also.

Igor Stravinsky . 1882-1971 . Russian-born composer, speaking of music [quoted, Stravinsky: The second exile (Walsh, 2007)]

There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something, we’d all love one another.

Frank Zappa . 1940-1993 . American musician, composer and satirist . Zen masters

* I don’t (yet) have full provenance of this quotation, but no reason to doubt its attribution

On music