“Music is of two kinds: one petty, poor, second-rate, never varying, its base the hundred or so phrasings which all musicians understand, a babbling which is more or less pleasant, the life that most composers live.” KindTwoPoorMusicMusicianMusic IsHundredRatePleasantComposerPettySecond RateBabbling Author:Honore de Balzac
“The mastery of one's phonemes may be compared to the violinist's mastery of fingering. The violin string lends itself to a continuous gradation of tones, but the musician learns the discrete intervals at which to stop the string in order to play the conventional notes. We sound our phonemes like poor violinists, approximating each time to a fancied norm, and we receive our neighbor's renderings indulgently, mentally rectifying the more glaring inaccuracies.” MayPlayOrderLanguageSoundPoorMusicMusicianNotesNeighborToneStringsMasteryConventionalNormViolinIntervalsRenderingViolinistDiscrete Author:Willard Van Orman Quine
“Most people you'd tell "I'm gonna be a musician," they'd say, "you're crazy, you're gonna starve, you're gonna be poor, a drug addict, go to jail, you'll never make it, there's too much competition, it's a terrible business," etc. But my chorus teacher in high school said, "you've got what it takes to be a really good professional musician, you should consider it." That was an epiphany for me. So I thought, well, maybe I can help somebody, too.” PeopleShouldWellsSaidI CanHelpingSchoolPoorToo MuchTeacherCrazyTerribleDrugMusicianHigh SchoolCompetitionEtcJailAddictEpiphanyChorusDrug Addict Author:Billy Joel
“Tom [Courtenay] and Albert Finney met Ron Harwood on the dresser, so that's how it started. It's a wonderful documentary. It's called Tosca's Kiss and Mr Hardwood told me about it when I asked him what the genesis was. It was made in 1983 and Verdi, who was rich and successful, toward the end of his life decided to build a mansion for himself in Milan, where he lived, and he stipulated that when he died opera singers and musicians - because he knew so many who were no longer playing at the Scala and some were poor - could live there.” MadeEndsPoorSuccessfulRichWonderfulMetsKissingMusicianDecidedDiedSingersOperaTomsDocumentariesGenesisMansionsMilanOpera SingersDressersVerdiHardwood Author:Dustin Hoffman
“So, I mean, there's still vast swaths of the city that are suffering from a lack of jobs and poor housing and poor public schools, but they are building momentum - you know, techies, foodies, artists, musicians, all coming to Detroit. So there is this vibrancy. You see it in the newspapers every day - some story about the new Detroit.” KnowsMeanStillsStoriesSchoolJobsArtistSufferingPoorCitiesBuildingMusicianNewspapersHousingPublic SchoolMomentumDetroitVibrancyTechie Author:David Maraniss
“In America, the poor have been invisibilised, because obviously this model of success that has been held out to the world must not show the poor, it must not show the condition of black people. It can only the successful ones, basketball players, musicians, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell. But I think the time will come when the Occupy movement will have to somehow formulate something more than just anger.” PeopleThinkingWorldHas BeensShowsAmericaBlackPoorSuccessfulPlayerConditionsMovementBasketballMusicianModelsBlack PeopleRiceBasketball PlayerOccupy Movement Author:Arundhati Roy
“I have a musician friend who, after reading Mountains, told me, "When I read the book, I wanted to quit music altogether and become a doctor." I told him, "Do you really think you can be a better doctor than you are a musician? Nobody needs you as a lousy doctor. Just be the one-of-a-kind, brilliant musician you are, and divert your success somehow to benefit the poor." You can achieve so much more this way.” ThinkingBookReadingPoorAchieveMountainMusicianBrilliantQuitting Author:Regine Chassagne
“Most musicians remain poor. But the music that they make, even if it does not bring them millions, gives millions of people happiness.” PeopleIfsGivingDoePoorMillionsMusician Book:Works for Children and Young Adults: Biographies Source: Works for Children and Young Adults: Biographies