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Composers combine notes, that’s all.

Igor Stravinsky

What I cannot follow are the manic-depressive fluctuations from total control to no control, from the serialization of all elements to chance.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Chance Control Depression Element Fluctuation
All you have to do is close your eyes and wait for the symbols.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Close Eyes Symbol Yourself
Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don’t like, it’s always by Villa Lobos?
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Artist Music Myself Pieces
My music is best understood by children and animals.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Animal Best Children Music Understand
I know that the twelve notes in each octave and the variety of rhythm offer me opportunities that all of human genius will never exhaust.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Exhaust Genius Human Myself Rhythm Willing
An audience is an abstraction; it has no taste. It must depend on the only person who has (pardon, should have), the conductor.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Abstraction Audience Person Taste
Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Forgiveness One Liner Sin
The true creator may be recognized by his ability always to find about him, in the commonest and humblest thing, items worthy of note.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Ability Creation Humble Note True Worth
There is music wherever there is rhythm, as there is life wherever there beats a pulse.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Life Lyrics Music Nature
Music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the coordination between man and time.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Establishment Man Music Ourselves Purpose Time
Music is given to us specifically to make order of things, to move from an anarchic, individualistic state to a regulated, perfectly concious one, which alone insures vitality and durability.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Alone Consciousness Music Order Perfection Regulation State
Hurry? I have no time to hurry.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Hurry Myself Time
It is my conviction that the public always shows itself more honest in its spontaneity than do those who officially set themselves up as judges of works of art.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Always Art Honesty Judgement Public Work
The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music they should be taught to love it instead.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

General Love Music Teaching Trouble
A composer is not only an architect but also an inventor, and he should not build houses in which he cannot live.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Architect Build Himself Home Invention Live
An artist is like a pig snouting truffles.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Animal Artist
Look for the music on all things, and life will be a symphony of joy. My music is best understood by children and animals.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Animal Children Life Music Myself Symphony Understand
Music is the sole domain in which man realizes the present.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Man Music Present Realization
The further one separates himself from the precepts of the Christian Church, the further one distances himself from the truth. Only God can create. I make music from music.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Creation Distance God Music Separate
Revolution means turning the wheel.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

One Liner Revolution
The more controlled, limited and tormented art is, the freer it is.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Art Control Freedom Limitation
What gives the artist real prestige is his imitators.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Artist Himself Imitation Reality
The real composer thinks about his work the whole time; he is not always conscious of this, but he is aware of it later when he suddenly knows what he will do.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Aware Conscious Himself Thinking Time Willing Work
I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Knowledge Learning Life Mistake Pursuit Wisdom
What force is more potent than love?
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Force Love One Liner Strong
I wonder if memory is true, and I know that it cannot be, but that one lives by memory nevertheless and not by truth.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Live Memories Myself True Wonder
All music is nothing more than a succession of impulses that converge towards a definite point of repose.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Definite Music Point Succession

Composers combine notes, that’s all.

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Composers combine notes, that’s all.

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