A Few Musical Aphorisms...

[yankeeclipper]

"Wagner's music isn't as bad as it sounds."

Mark Twain

[Perry Werner]

Howdy again:

 

And of course the great quote from the great Louis Armstrong which we especially can relate to..........

 

"All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song"

 

 

Have some fun,

Perry Werner

[davidcorner]

"If Music be the Food of Love, Play On."[

Kenneth Horne once introduced a musical item on "Round the Horne" with

"If Music be the Food of Love, this must be the Syrup of Figs."

[Animaterra]

Victor Hugo:

"La musique exprime ce qui ne peut être dit et sur quoi il est impossible de rester silencieux."

"Music expresses what cannot be put into words and yet cannot remain unsaid"

 

"La musique, c’est du bruit qui pense."

"Music, it's noise that thinks"

[fiddlerjoebob]

(This has the usual double-take effect of an aphorism of making one wonder whether it is actually saying anything, whether it’s true, and whether it means the opposite to what you originally thought.)

 

 

Chris

 

Whoops, yes this is right Chris, I now realise the first few peices I used to start this thread are not infact aphorisims in the true sence of the word. But, my intention was to include any sort of collection of words that fits the bill. Poetry, limerics, free verse or iambic pentameter, song lyrics, anything that floats your boat above this sea of troubles we've gotten ourselves into. I have enjoyed the posts so far. Thanks

 

randy

[Dirge]

ON the principle that FJB says it counts, I use 'That's close enough for jazz' a lot. I heard it in a folk club used entirely appropriately by a lady tuning her guitar. I'll describe the condition of anything part worn or vague but adequate like this, not just music. It does seem to puzzle people, but pleases me for some reason...

[Anglo-Irishman]

Music critic and author George Bernard Shaw on music:

 

"Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."

 

Cheers,

John

[John Wild]

I'm assuming that the gut he is referring to is stings on a lute or violin.

 

I suppose there will be some bees wax which might be useful?

 

 

Some further quotes:

 

'Music is the best means we have of digesting time'

- WH Auden

 

'Harpists spend half their life tuning and the other half playing out of tune'

- Anon.

 

'I occasionally play music by contemporary composers, and for two reasons. First, to discourage the composer from writing anymore, and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven.'

- Jascha Heifetz

 

 

- John Wild

[Ivan Viehoff]

A useful construction of wide application

'I do not know why we import third-rate foreign conductors when we have so many second-rate ones of our own"

attributed to Thos. Beecham

 

Also

'I haven't performed any Schoenberg, but I believe I once trod in some.'

 

Which is a little unfair. He wrote some stunningly good music (Verklarte Nacht, Gurrelieder) before he wasted so much of his life convincingly demonstrating that mathematical/randomising techniques such as serialism do not good music make.

 

Another useful construction

"Verdi was the Puccini of music"

[Robin Madge]

"Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."

 

And as my late father used to say:

"Those who can't teach become school inspectors."

 

Robin Madge

[David Barnert]

A piece can be played better than it is.

But as Duke Ellington put it, If it sounds good, it is good.

 

"If Music be the Food of Love, Play On."

I've always rather liked: If love be the food of music, eat on!

But for the analogy to be completely, um..., analogous, you've got the wrong verb there, Chris.

 

Some tuning quips.

 

From a guitarist:I washed my ears this morning and I can't do nothin' with 'em.

 

From a Viola da Gamba player:They say that if you didn't have to spend so much time tuning gambas, the Renaissance would have been over two hundred years earlier.

[Chris Timson]

From a Viola da Gamba player:They say that if you didn't have to spend so much time tuning gambas, the Renaissance would have been over two hundred years earlier.

Not dissimilarly I once heard Jonathan Taylor (of this forum but also a very fine pipes player) say "Northumbrian pipes players spend half their lives tuning and the other half playing out of tune".

 

Chris

Edited March 7, 2008 by Chris Timson

[John Wild]

'I do not know why we import third-rate foreign conductors when we have so many second-rate ones of our own"

attributed to Thos. Beecham

 

Sir Thomas seems to have been quite free with his comments. Here is another:

 

'Brass bands are all very well in their place - outdoors and several miles away.'

 

 

- John Wild

[wntrmute]

A young man said to his mother, "Mom, when I grow up I want to be a musician."

She replied, "Honey, you can't do both of those things."

[SteveS]

And what my wife says I play: "constant screamer" - mmm

 

Steve

[njurkowski]

A useful construction of wide application

'I do not know why we import third-rate foreign conductors when we have so many second-rate ones of our own"

attributed to Thos. Beecham

 

Also

'I haven't performed any Schoenberg, but I believe I once trod in some.'

 

Which is a little unfair. He wrote some stunningly good music (Verklarte Nacht, Gurrelieder) before he wasted so much of his life convincingly demonstrating that mathematical/randomising techniques such as serialism do not good music make.

 

Another useful construction

"Verdi was the Puccini of music"

 

 

I thought that Beecham quote was about Stockhausen actually....regardless, as someone with more than a passing interest in music theory and contemporary composition, I can't let that sentiment go unchallenged .

 

Schoenberg isn't my favorite composer, but I enjoy a good deal of his music, including the freely atonal and twelve-tone compositions. His music is often dismissed rather out of hand by people because it doesn't sound like what we are used to. Schoenberg, Webern, and subsequent serial composers often require a fair amount of study (to understand conceptually) and listening (to understand aurally). If you practice or perform one of these works, it ceases to sound like "atonal music" and starts to just sound like "music" - a music that simply uses a different language than what most are used to. Pure serialism, in general, doesn't interest me that much, but there are a number of composers who use serialist techniques as organizing principles to write beautiful music - Luigi Dallapiccola comes to mind. And I certainly vehemently reject the idea that Schoenberg in any way "wasted his life." He had a profound effect on the music of the 20th century, whether it be from people developing his ideas (Webern, Dallapiccola, and even Stravinsky, to cite a few examples) to people reacting against them (Hindemith and Cage - though their reactions were very different!).

 

Alright enough soapboxing...my favorite aphorisms come from Rossini:

"Wagner's music has beautiful moments and terrible quarters of an hour."

 

On being asked why he retired from active composition:

"In my youth, I had time for three things. Good wine, beautiful women, and writing music. Now I only have time for two of those things." (or something like that)

[Charles Hunt]

A few years ago I found a small volume in a used bookstore.

It was, published in the 1890’s, and filled with musical aphorisms. Here are two of my favorites:

 

A while ago, I heard Ray Charles being interviewed once on the radio. He summed up the concept of musical improvisation:

 

"What your mind think of, can your fingers play it?"

[keithfre]

Schoenberg isn't my favorite composer, but I enjoy a good deal of his music, including the freely atonal and twelve-tone compositions. His music is often dismissed rather out of hand by people because it doesn't sound like what we are used to.

I recently bought a CD of Simon Rattle conducting Schoenberg (+ Webern + Berg) with the Birmingham SO. He makes it sound really fresh and interesting.

 

So: can we expect some Schoenberg on the concertina from you any time soon? ;-}