Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Talent works, genius creates.
When you play, never mind who listens to you.
Play always as if in the presence of a master.
Perhaps only a Genius can truly understand Genius.
Music induces nightingales to sing, pug dogs to yelp.
Music owes as much to Bach as religion to its founder.
Without enthusiasm nothing great can be effected in art.
Nothing right can be accomplished in art without enthusiasm.
To compose is to remember music that has never been written.
I was a God-fearing child, innocent and physically attractive.
The principal mark of genius is not perfection, but originality.
Send light to the dark hearts of men, that is the duty the artist.
Only when the form grows clear to you, will the spirit become so too.
A fiery, good beginner always stands higher than a master in mediocrity.
I sometimes lack confidence in public, although I am proud enough inwardly.
The aesthetic principle is the same in every art, only the material differs.
We shouldn't repeat the same for ages on end, but look into the new as well.
You should neither play bad compositions, nor, unless compelled, listen to them.
To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.
For me, music is always the language which permits one to converse with the Beyond.
Let your intimate friends be chosen from such as are better informed than yourself.
Does it not seem as if Mozart's works become fresher and fresher the oftener we hear them?
That first concept is alway the most naturally and best. The mind errs, the emotion never.
In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of.
I am so fresh in soul and spirit that life gushes and bubbles around me in a thousand springs.
For me Wagner is impossible... he talks without ever stopping. One can't just talk all the time.
"We liked it" or "I didn't like it" people say. As if it were nothing higher than to please the people!
Endeavour to play easy pieces well and with elegance; that is better than to play difficult pieces badly.
Art was not created as a way to riches. Strive to become a true artist; all else will take care of itself.
My heart pounds sickeningly and I turn pale... I often feel as if I were dead... I seem to be losing my mind.
When you play, do not trouble yourself as to who is listening. Yet always play as though a master listened to you.
We may be sure that a genius like Mozart, were he born today, would write concertos like Chopin and not like Mozart.
You write to become immortal, or because the piano happens to be open, or you've looked into a pair of beautiful eyes.
My whole life has been a twenty years struggle between poetry and prose, or, if you like to call it so, Music and Law.
We have learned to express the more delicate nuances of feeling by penetrating more deeply into the mysteries of harmony.
Can that which has cost the artist days, weeks, months and even years of reflection be understood in a flash by a dilettante?
If we were all determined to play the first violin we should never have an ensemble. therefore, respect every musician in his proper place.
When young, one learns his craftsmanship, may become a young master, and it is youth that is most auspicious for developing certain skills.
The poet sees better than other mortals. I do not see things as they are, but according to my own subjective impression, and this makes life easier and simpler.
Thus it is ever in life. The aims we once pursued no longer satisfy us; we aim, we strive, we aspire, until sight fails, and mind and body find rest in the grave.
Think it a vile habit to alter works of good composers, to omit parts of them, or to insert new-fashioned ornaments. This is the greatest insult you can offer to Art.
You will be most readily cured of vanity or presumption by studying the history of music, and by hearing the master pieces which have been produced at different periods.
I feel so entirely in my element with a full orchestra; even if my mortal enemies were marshalled before me, I could lead them, master them, surround them, or repulse them.
From a pound of iron, that costs little, a thousand watch-springs can be made, whose value becomes prodigious. The pound you have received from the Lord,--use it faithfully.
Music - so different from painting - is the art which we enjoy most in company with others. A symphony, presented in a room with one other listener, would please him but little.
The flame that is naturally clear always gives the most light and heat. If I could blend my talent for poetry and music into one, the light would burn still clearer, and I might go far.
Believe me, were I ever to accomplish anything, it would be in music, which has always attracted me; and, without overestimating myself, I am conscious of possessing a certain creative faculty.
My symphonies would have reached Opus 100 if I had but written them down... Sometimes I am so full of music, and so overflowing with melody, that I find it simply impossible to write down anything.
It is the curse of talent that, although it labors with greater steadiness and perseverance than genius, it does not reach its goal, while genius already on the summit of the ideal, gazes laughingly about.
Mendelssohn I consider the first musician of the day; I doff my hat to him as my superior. He plays with everything, especially with the grouping of the instruments in the orchestra, but with such ease, delicacy and art, with such mastery throughout.