Someone once asked me… whether I waited for inspiration. My answer was: “Every day!”
AARON COPLANDYou 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.
More Aaron Copland Quotes
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If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong.
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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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The melody is generally what the piece is all about.
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The greatest moments of the human spirit may be deduced from the greatest moments in music.
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The main thing is to be satisfied with your work yourself. It’s useless to have an audience happy if you are not happy.
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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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If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.
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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.
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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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I don’t compose. I assemble materials.
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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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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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You may feel depressed, but it can’t be so depressing that you can’t move. No, I would say that people create in moments when they are elated about expressing their depression!
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I adore extravagance but I abhor waste.
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Music that is born complex is not inherently better or worse than music that is born simple.
AARON COPLAND