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Grumpy composer quotes: 12 humbug moments
Composers aren't always the most cheerful of people, and when they were really grumpy they came out with amazing, whiny, complaining zingers like this. Humbug, anyone?
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1. Bach
"If I decide to be an idiot, then I'll be an idiot on my own accord." - J.S. Bach
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2. Debussy
"People don't very much like things that are beautiful — they are so far from their nasty little minds." - Claude Debussy
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3. Mozart
"Our riches, being in our brains, die with us... Unless of course someone chops off our head, in which case, we won't need them anyway." - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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4. Copland
"I don't compose. I assemble materials."
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5. Wagner
"Music has taken a bad turn; these young people have no idea how to write a melody, they just give us shavings." - Richard Wagner
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6. Stravinsky
"To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also." - Igor Stravinsky
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7. Tchaikovsky
"To regret the past, to hope in the future, and never to be satisfied with the present: that is what I spend my whole life doing." - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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8. Satie
"When I was young I was told, 'you'll see when you're fifty.' I am fifty and I haven't seen a thing." - Erik Satie
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9. Brahms
"If there is anyone present whom I have not insulted, I beg his pardon." Johannes Brahms
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10. Cage
"There is poetry as soon as we realise that we possess nothing." - John Cage
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11. Bizet
"What a beautiful art, but what a wretched profession." - Goerges Bizet
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12. Beethoven
"Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear." - Ludwig van Beethoven
