The greatest moments of the human spirit may be deduced from the greatest moments in music.
AARON COPLANDSomeone once asked me… whether I waited for inspiration. My answer was: “Every day!”
More Aaron Copland Quotes
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So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.
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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.”
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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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Arthur V. Berger commenting on the music of Aaron Copland: Here is at last an American that we may place unapologetically beside the great recognized creative figures of any other country.
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If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.
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A great symphony is a man-made Mississippi down which we irresistibly flow from the instant of our leave-taking to a long forseen destination.
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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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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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Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes.
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I adore extravagance but I abhor waste.
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To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.
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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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Someone once asked me… whether I waited for inspiration. My answer was: “Every day!”
AARON COPLAND -
I don’t compose. I assemble materials.
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When I speak of the gifted listener, I am thinking of the nonmusician primarily, of the listener who intends to retain his amateur status. It is the thought of just such a listener that excites the composer in me.
AARON COPLAND