To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.
AARON COPLANDMusic that is born complex is not inherently better or worse than music that is born simple.
More Aaron Copland Quotes
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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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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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If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.
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Mozart tapped the source from which all music flows, expressing himself with a spontaneity and refinement and breathtaking rightness.
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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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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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Composers tend to assume that everyone loves music. Surprisingly enough, everyone doesn’t.
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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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The melody is generally what the piece is all about.
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I adore extravagance but I abhor waste.
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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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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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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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I don’t compose. I assemble materials.
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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.
AARON COPLAND