To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.
AARON COPLANDSomeone once asked me… whether I waited for inspiration. My answer was: “Every day!”
More Aaron Copland Quotes
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I hope my recordings of my own works won’t inhibit other people’s performances. The brutal fact is that one doesn’t always get the exact tempo one wants, although one improves with experience.
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I adore extravagance but I abhor waste.
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Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness – I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.
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If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.
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If one were asked to name one musician who came closest to composing without human flaw, I suppose general consensus would choose Johann Sebastian Bach.
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Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific.
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A melody is not merely something you can hum.
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This whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, “Is there a meaning to music?” My answer to that would be, “Yes.” And “Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?” My answer to that would be, “No.”
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Music that is born complex is not inherently better or worse than music that is born simple.
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You compose because you want to somehow summarize in some permanent form your most basic feelings about being alive, to set down some sort of permanent statement about the way it feels to live now, today.
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If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong.
AARON COPLAND -
The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking “Is there a meaning to music?” My answer would be, “Yes”, And “Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?” My answer to that would be “No.”
AARON COPLAND -
Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes.
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I don’t compose. I assemble materials.
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Someone once asked me… whether I waited for inspiration. My answer was: “Every day!”
AARON COPLAND






