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Composer Quotes

Browse 771 quotes about Composer.

Composer Quotes

“Still, American composers working in France have had a pretty hard time.”

Stills Hard France Hard Times Composer

Author:Gavin Bryars

“I'm not an intellectual composer.”

Intellectual Composer

Author:Les Baxter

“I dare suggest that the composer would do himself and his music an immediate and eventual service by total, resolute and voluntary withdrawal from this public world to one of private performance and electronic media.”

World Media Performances Dare Composer Withdrawal Resolute Electronic Media

Book:The Collected Essays of Milton Babbitt

Source: The Collected Essays of Milton Babbitt

“Aaron Copland was a man that had a very specific point of view about what music should be which was that, he felt that new music should have the composer should show a personality in his music.”

Men Should Shows Felt Views Personality Should Have Point Of View Composer New Music

Author:Elliott Carter

“Perhaps two million years ago the creatures of a planet in some remote galaxy faced a musical crisis similar to that which we earthly composers face today.”

Years Two Today Faces Millions Planets Creatures Years Ago Crisis Musical Composer Galaxy

Author:George Crumb

“I have tremendous respect for film composers.”

Film Composer Film Composers

Author:John Corigliano

“I'm glad I won it because when I grew up the Pulitzer was the award that every composer wanted and I was like that too.”

Wanted Grew Grew Up Glad Awards Composer

Author:John Corigliano

“You become a great composer when you win a Pulitzer. But I think that now it's a completely meaningless award.”

Thinking Winning Awards Meaningless Composer

Author:John Corigliano

“I find respect for a mediocre British composer, as opposed to a really good American, ridiculous because they automatically respect a composer if he's from England.”

Ifs England British Ridiculous Composer Mediocre

Author:John Corigliano

“I don't think a guy that really has no understanding about people, or has no interest in understanding people would make a good film composer.”

People Thinking Film Guy Understanding Interest Composer Good Films Film Composers

Author:Stanley Clarke

“The great opera composers were so good at their job, that the whole genre came to be built around the concept of the composer's vision.”

Whole Jobs Vision Concepts Built Genre Opera Composer

Author:Stewart Copeland

“When my opera Plump Jack was performed in 1989, my first piano teacher sent me something that I'd composed when I was four. I remember I played it, and it still sounded like me. I'm the same composer I was then.”

Firsts Stills Remember Teacher Four Like Me Piano Opera Composer Piano Teachers

Author:Gordon Getty

“I'm trying to interpret the film through the director's head, but it all comes out through me. So, a composer is kind of like a psychic medium.”

Trying Kind Film Directors Mediums Composer Psychics

Author:Danny Elfman

“So, it becomes an exercise in futility if you write something that does not express the film as the director wishes. It's still their ball game. It's their show. I think any successful composer learns how to dance around the director's impulses.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Doe Stills Shows Film Games Wish Successful Exercise Directors Balls Impulse Composer Futility Ball Games Ballgame

Author:Danny Elfman

“My musical knowledge is so bad it's embarrassing. When composers discuss music with someone as primitive as myself, they have to talk about it in terms of senses and emotion, rather than keys and tempo.”

Term Emotion Keys Musical Senses Composer Primitive Embarrassing Tempo

Author:Jane Campion

“If you aim at anything lower that is expecting your audience to be really alert and aware, then you're going to be caught out sooner or later as a composer.”

Ifs Audience Aim Caught Composer Expecting Sooner Or Later

Author:Peter Maxwell Davies

“Composers dialogue - and obsessively, bitterly argue - with other composers, often over the span of several centuries.”

Century Arguing Dialogue Composer

Author:Brian Ferneyhough

“A characteristic of older folksongs, in most cases, is that we don't know their composers or authors. Older folksongs were written often with no commercial purpose in mind. They were passed down by word of mouth, from generation to generation.”

Knows Mind Purpose Cases Written Generations Mouths Characteristics Composer Word Of Mouth

Author:Tom Glazer

“I've got a collection of songs that I've had, I keep adding to and they're all great American composers. I wanted to showcase American composers and I've done that on a lot of my records and played things by American composers that I really respect.”

Done Wanted Song Records Collections Composer Great American Showcase

Author:Charlie Haden

“As I get older, I'm slowing down and, yes, calming down in my desire to be taken seriously. That I can be entertaining and funny and high nervous energy can work against me as a serious composer, slowly but surely you'll see me be quieter just so that people will listen.”

People I Can Desire Energy Taken Serious Down And Nervous Composer Entertaining Slow Down Calming Slowing Slowly But Surely Calming Down

Author:Marvin Hamlisch

“Bernard Herrmann was a genius, a great, great composer.”

Genius Composer

Author:Michel Hazanavicius