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Composition is selective improvisation.

Igor Stravinsky

Music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all. Music expresses itself.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Essential Expression Music Nature
The trick is to compose what one wants to compose and to get it commissioned afterward.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Commission Oneself Trick
Revolution means turning the wheel.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

One Liner Revolution
The principle of the endless melody is the perpetual becoming of a music that never had any reason for starting, any more than it has any reason for ending.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

End Music Principle Reason Start
I never am sea sick, never. I am sea drunk!
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Myself Sea Sick
Music is given to us specifically to make order of things, to move from an anarchic, individualistic state to a regulated, perfectly concious one, which alone insures vitality and durability.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Alone Consciousness Music Order Perfection Regulation State
Art postulates communion, and the artist has an imperative need to make others share the joy which he experiences himself.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Art Artist Experience Himself Joy Share Unity
The one true comment on a piece of music is another piece of music.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Comment Music Pieces True
We can neither put back the clock nor slow down our forward speed, and as we are already flying pilotless, on instrument controls, it is even too late to ask where we are going.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Clock Control Fly Instrument Journey Slow Time
All you have to do is close your eyes and wait for the symbols.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Close Eyes Symbol Yourself
Doomed to total failure in a deaf world of ignorance and indifference, he inexorably kept on cutting out his diamonds, his dazzling diamonds, of whose mines he had a perfect knowledge.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Diamond Failure Knowledge Perfection World
Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

End Music Pieces Song
Harpists spend 90 percent of their lives tuning their harps and 10 percent playing out of tune.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Instrument Live Music Play Silence
We cannot describe sound, but we cannot forget it either.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Forget Music Sound
Music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the coordination between man and time.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Establishment Man Music Ourselves Purpose Time
I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Knowledge Learning Life Mistake Pursuit Wisdom

Composition is selective improvisation.

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Composition is selective improvisation.

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