Composer Quotes

“The idea of a composer in an ivory tower is a very romantic and, I think, a very silly notion.”

“I regard it as the duty of a composer to be a man of his time.”

“What the composer wanted is the alpha and omega for me. But the composer is not there to tell me what he wanted.”

“Without Schubert, I would not have been the same person.”

“My job is to be the advocate for the composer.”

“Verdi is the composer of the people. He speaks to the heart.”

“My duty is to be the composer's advocate.”

“Mozart is pure, like a crystal.”

“Of all the composers that have ever lived, Schubert is the most poetical.”

“The score is the Bible. We must be servants of the score.”

“Schoenberg is the great watershed of 20th-century music.”

“I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons. First to discourage the composer from writing any more and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven.”

“Mahler is a mountain, and you must climb it. The view from the top is worth the effort.”

“Wagner is a composer who is not for the faint-hearted.”

“Mozart is sweet sunshine.”