22 inspiring composer quotes
Classical composers are sometimes just as good at quotes as they are at music. Take a look at these amazing, inspirational quotes from some of the greatest composers of all time.
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1. Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy: "Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art."
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2. Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein: "To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time."
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3. Bela Bartok
Bela Bartok: "Competitions are for horses, not artists."
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4. Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt: "Mournful and yet grand is the destiny of the artist."
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5. Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler: "I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way."
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6. Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky: "Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal."
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7. Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar: "I always said God was against art and I still believe it."
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8. Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms: "Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind."
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9. Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn: "There was no one near to confuse me, so I was forced to become original."
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10. Georges Bizet
George Bizet: "As a musician I tell you that if you were to suppress adultery, fanaticism, crime, evil, the supernatural, there would no longer be the means for writing one note."
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11. Johann Sebastian Bach
J.S. Bach: "I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well."
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12. Erik Satie
Erik Satie: "The musician is perhaps the most modest of animals, but he is also the proudest."
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13. Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann: "To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist."
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14. Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich: "A creative artist works on his next composition because he was not satisfied with his previous one."
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15. Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss: "I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer."
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16. John Cage
John Cage: "I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
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17. Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen: "I'm an adventurer. I like invention, I like discovery."
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18. Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten: "The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping."
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19. Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini: "Inspiration is an awakening, a quickening of all man's faculties, and it is manifested in all high artistic achievements."
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20. Malcolm Arnold
Malcolm Arnold: "Music is the social act of communication among people, a gesture of friendship, the strongest there is."
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21. Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel: "The only love affair I have ever had was with music."
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22. Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner: "Imagination creates reality."
