“How can one express the indefinable sensations that one experiences while writing an instrumental composition that has no definite subject? It is a purely lyrical process. It is a musical confession of the soul, which unburdens itself through sounds just as a lyric poet expresses himself through poetry...As the poet Heine said, 'Where words leave off, music begins.'” WritingSaidSoulProcessSoundMusicSubjectsPoetMusic IsMusicalSensationsConfessionCompositionDefiniteLyricalIndefinable Author:Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
“The creation and destruction of harmonic and 'statistical' tensions is essential to the maintenance of compositional drama. Any composition (or improvisation) which remains consonant and 'regular' throughout is, for me, equivalent to watching a movie with only 'good guys' in it, or eating cottage cheese.” GuyMusicCreationDramaEssentialsEatingDestructionRemainsGuitarTensionCheeseCompositionImprovisationGood GuyMaintenanceCottagesConsonantsCreation And Destruction Author:Frank Zappa
“I'm pretty optimistic about the future of rock... it will be back to composition as in classical music or jazz.” MusicRocksJazzOptimisticCompositionClassical MusicJazz Music Author:Jimmy Page
“It appears to me that the subject of music, from Machaut to Boulez, has always been its construction. Melodies of 12-tone rows just don't happen. They must be constructed....To demonstrate any formal idea in music, whether structure or stricture, is a matter of construction, in which the methodology is the controlling metaphor of the composition...Only by 'unfixing' the elements traditionally used to construct a piece of music could the sounds exist in themselves--not as symbols, or memories which were memories of other music to begin with.” IdeasMatterHappensUsedSoundMemoriesMusicPiecesSubjectsElementsStructureMetaphorSymbolsToneMelodyConstructionCompositionFormalConstructsMethodology Author:Morton Feldman
“When you know the lyrics to a tune, you have some kind of insight as to it's composition.” KnowsKindMusicJazzInsightTunesCompositionDeprivingDepriving Yourself Author:Dexter Gordon
“In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds.” WantMusicJazzSecondsCompositionImprovisation Author:Steve Lacy
“Jazz music is a style, not compositions; any kind of music may be played in Jazz if one has the knowledge.” IfsKindMayMusicStyleMusic IsJazzCompositionJazz Music Author:Jelly Roll Morton
“I once sent him a song and asked him to mark a cross wherever he thought it was faulty. Brahms returned it untouched, saying 'I don't want to make a cemetery of your compositions.'” WantSongMusicCrossesMarkCompositionCemeteryBrahms Author:Hugo Wolf