Quotes On Music

From Music and Imagination (1952):

… I hold that person fortunate who has the gift, for there are few pleasures in art greater than the secure sense that one can recognize beauty when one comes upon it. (p. 8)

… once out of my hands the work takes on a life of its own. In a similar way I can imagine a father who takes no personal credit for the beauty of a much admired daughter. This must mean that the artist (or father) considers himself an unwitting instrument whose satisfaction is not to produce beauty, but simply to produce. (p. 11)

A healthy musical curiosity and a broad musical experience sharpens the critical faculty of even the most talented amateur. (p. 19)

It is axiomatic that unless the hearing of the music first stirs the executant it is unlikely to move an audience. (p. 52)

He [Serge Koussevitsky] said our audiences would never fully understand American orchestral compositions until they heard them conducted by American-born conductors. It seems clear, then, that if we can speak of national traits of character, inevitably those traits will form the interpreter’s character as a human being and shine through the interpretation. (p. 56)

… each separate composition is a law onto itself and only bears a general resemblance to the external shape of whatever form is adopted. (p. 63)

Every artist, whatever his convictions, must sooner or later face the problem of communication with an audience. (pp.75-6)

I believe in the ultimate good of the world and of life as I live it in order to create a work of art. Negative emotions cannot produce art; positive emotions bespeak an emotion about something. I cannot imagine an art work without implied convictions; and that is true also for music, the most abstract of the arts. (p. 111)