To attempt what old Chinese painters called ‘spirit resonance’ in melody and sound.
ALAN HOVHANESSI was born in Somerville, but I don’t remember very much about it because we moved from there to Arlington when I was five years old, and it was in Arlington that I spent most of my childhood.
More Alan Hovhaness Quotes
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My mother’s background was Scottish.
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I did all kinds of things in order to earn a living.
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The planets have the sun, the earth, the moon.
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The composer…joins Heaven and Earth with threads of sounds.
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I’ve always regarded nature as the clothing of God.
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This is not to say that the Scots are not fine people, but they were all sort of.
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Well, my grandfather was a minister and sort of Protestant, and this was rather depressing to me.
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I think that of my 21 symphonies, each has its own place.
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The greater the emotional intensity, the greater the simplicity.
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But I did become fairly proficient as a pianist and my teachers felt I had talent and wanted me to become a good concert pianist and earn my living that way.
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There is nothing like practice.
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It’s hard for me to think of others because I’m not particularly in sympathy with the music of this century.
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I found a greater identity with my own emotions in the Armenian culture as I grew older.
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As well as from the beginning, although I didn’t know anything about it.
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My purpose is to create music not for snobs, but for all people, music which is beautiful and healing.
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