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Stravinsky Quotes

Browse 35 quotes about Stravinsky.

Stravinsky Quotes

“If possible, be Russian. And live in another country. Play chess. Be an active trader between languages. Carry precious metals from one to the other. Remind us of Stravinsky. Know the names of plants and flying creatures. Hunt gauzy wings with snares of gauze. Make science pay tribute. Have a butterfly known by your name.”

IfsKnowsLifeCountryPlayNamesLanguagePayKnownCreaturesWingsPlantActiveChessFlyingMetalsButterflyHuntsTributeTradersSnaresStravinskyPrecious Metal
Author:Vladimir Nabokov
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“People are interested in certain ideas, in certain periods, and then that moves, and okay, now people are more interested in studying this, and there is no perfect balance, and how would you know what the perfect balance is? I mean, what does it mean to have too many Beethoven chairs and too few Stravinsky chairs? I mean, that's kind of a value judgment that isn't really based on humility. We don't know what the optimum number is, so let people figure this out on their own. People are more interested in Beethoven than Stravinsky? Great! Why would that bother me?”

PeopleKnowsKindMeanDoeIdeasMovingCertainValuesPerfectNumbersStudyFiguresHumilityBalancePeriodsJudgmentOkayBotherChairsOptimumPerfect BalanceStravinsky
Author:Charles Koch
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“The composer Stravinsky had written a new piece with a difficult violin passage. After it had been in rehearsal for several weeks, the solo violinist came to Stravinsky and said he was sorry, he had tried his best, the passage was too difficult, no violinist could play it. Stravinsky said, 'I understand that. What I am after is the sound of someone trying to play it.'”

TryingSaidPlayDifficultSoundPiecesWrittenWeekSorryPassagesComposerSoloRehearsalViolinViolinistStravinsky
Author:Thomas Powers
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“The extent of his influence across jazz, across American music, and around the world has such continuing stature that he is one of the few who can easily be mentioned with Stravinsky, Picasso and Joyce. His life was the embodiment of one who moves from rags to riches, from anonymity to internationally imitated innovator. Louis Daniel Armstrong supplied revolutionary language that took on such pervasiveness that it became commonplace, like the light bulb, the airplane, the telephone.”

WorldLightMovingLanguageInfluenceJazzRichesAround The WorldRevolutionaryAirplaneContinuingTelephonesCommonplaceInnovatorsEmbodimentRagsStatureAnonymityBulbsArmstrongJoyceLight BulbAmerican MusicStravinskyRags To Riches
Author:Stanley Crouch
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“Most of us are searching-consciously or unconsciously- for a degree of internal balance and harmony between ourselves and the outside world, and if we happen to become aware-like Stravinsky- of a volcano within us, we will compensate by urging restraint. By that same token, someone who bore a glacier within them might urge passionate abandon. The danger is, as Bergman points out, that a glacial personality in need of passionate abandon may read Stravinsky and apply restraint instead.”

IfsWorldNeedsMayMightHappensDangerPersonalityBalanceDegreesHarmonyPassionateInternalsUrgesAbandonBoresRestraintOutside WorldTokensVolcanoesGlaciersBergmanStravinskyBalance And Harmony
Author:Walter Murch
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“Art is theft”) and Igor Stravinsky (“Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal”), I’ve always stolen from the people I admire – not plagiarized, mind you, but stolen bits of ideas and stylistic influences. If you steal widely enough, after all, your models are inevitably changed and the result is in the end completely yours. Kleon cites André Gide to this point, in a quotation I love: “Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”

PeopleIfsNeedsMindArtSaidIdeasEndsEnoughArtistBitsResultsInfluenceChangedListeningModelsArt IsStealingAdmireQuotationsGreat ArtStolenTheftGreat ArtistCitingStravinsky
Author:Austin Kleon
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“I'm not a star. I'll never be a Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley or a Ray Charles. I'm just an imitator, man. I'm doing a very bad imitation on the bass of Jerry Jemmott, Bernard Odum, Jimmy Fielder, Jimmy Blanton, Igor Stravinsky, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, James Brown, Charlie Parker... the cats, man. I'm just backing up the cats.”

MenStarsCatBrownRaysFrankImitationBassCharlieJimmyJerryHendrixImitatorColtraneStravinskyBacking UpCharles I
Author:Jaco Pastorius
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