Igor Stravinsky Quotes

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
I am an inventor of music.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Invention Music Myself
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
The one true comment on a piece of music is another piece of music.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Comment Music Pieces True
The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Freedom Oneself Perspective Restriction
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
Art is the opposite of chaos. Art is organized chaos.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Art Chaos One Liner
What force is more potent than love?
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Force Love One Liner Strong
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 knew I had to write a Mass of my own, but a real one.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Myself Prayer Reality Writing
Music is the coordination between man and time.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Man Music Time
The principle of the endless melody is the perpetual becoming of a music that never had any reason for starting, any more than it has any reason for ending.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

End Music Principle Reason Start
We cannot describe sound, but we cannot forget it either.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Forget Music Sound
In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Creation Force Love Order Reproduction
Art postulates communion, and the artist has an imperative need to make others share the joy which he experiences himself.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Art Artist Experience Himself Joy Share Unity
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
Invention presupposes imagination but should not be confused with it.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Confusion Imagination Invention
Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Beginning Eat Inspiration Work
The faculty of creating is never given to us all by itself. It always goes hand in hand with the gift of observation.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Artist Creation Gift Hands Observation Talent
The performance has developed to such an extent in recent years that it challenges the music itself and will soon threaten it with relegation.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Challenge Development Performance Threat
The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Freedom Impose Oneself Precision Service
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
Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Forgiveness One Liner Sin
The trick is to compose what one wants to compose and to get it commissioned afterward.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Commission Oneself Trick
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
Composition is selective improvisation.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Improve One Liner Selective
To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Difference Effort Listening

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