“I got myself into a lovely little shall we say controversy with André Breton, by pointing out that the discipline of spontaneity, which he was asking his surrealist neophytes to adopt, was new for language but something that composers had been practicing for centuries.” LittlesLanguageCenturyDisciplineAskingLovelyComposerPointingControversySpontaneitySurrealist Book:A Virgil Thomson reader Source: A Virgil Thomson reader
“Many consider that Shostakovich is the greatest 20th-century composer. In his 15 symphonies, 15 quartets, and in other works he demonstrated mastery of the largest and most challenging forms with music of great emotional power and technical invention...All his works are marked by emotional extremes - tragic intensity, grotesque and bizarre wit, humour, parody, and savage sarcasm.” FormChallengesCenturyEmotionalHumourExtremesWitInventionTragicSarcasmIntensityComposerMasterySavages20th CenturyBizarreSymphonyParodyGrotesqueQuartetsEmotional PowerShostakovich Author:Dmitri Shostakovich
“Composers can do things that weren't allowed in the 17th century. Until we had composers like Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff to break the rules.” Can DoBreakCenturyComposer17th CenturyStravinskyRachmaninoff Author:Aaron Zigman
“When I was a kid, I looked at art as a way of blending everything. One of my favorite composers is Wagner - who coined the term "gesamtkunstwerk," or "total art work." That's what was going on in the 19th century, and the 20th century just kept it going.” WayArtKidsTermCenturyMy FavoriteComposer20th Century19th CenturyWagner Author:DJ Spooky
“'Jazz Artist of the Century' would have to be a distinctive soloist and ensemble player, a composer, an arranger, a bandleader, and a driver; would have to span all the genres and periods of jazz; would have to have run her own label; [would] possess a deep spirituality, with grace and a sense of humor; and would have to have succeeded against all odds. Who else? Mary Lou Williams.” RunningArtistSpiritualityGracePlayerCenturyPeriodsJazzLabelsGenreDriversSense Of HumorComposerMaryOddsDistinctiveEnsembleAgainst All Odds Author:Dave Douglas
“The people of your century no longer require the service of composers. A composer is as useful to a person in a jogging suit as a dinsoaur turd in the middle of his runway.” PeoplePersonsMiddleCenturySuitsComposerRunwayJoggingTurds Author:Frank Zappa
“You think about, like, [20th-century classical composers] Alban Berg, Schoenberg, and Webern sitting around in some living room in Vienna and being like, "We are the end of music. We are the end of this tradition. Music is done."” ThinkingEndsDoneRoomsCenturyMusic IsSittingTraditionComposer20th CenturyLiving RoomSitting AroundViennaClassical ComposersSchoenbergWebern Author:David Longstreth