Quotations, etc - In No Particular Order

2005-05-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

"I am not in the habit of rewriting my compositions. I never
did it because I am profoundly convinced that every change of
detail changes the character of the whole." -- Ludwig van Beethoven

(February 19, 1813, to George Thomson, who had requested some
changes in compositions submitted to him for publication.)

Beethoven, the Man and the Artist, as Revealed in His Own Words

2005-05-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

"Melody is the essence of music. I compare a good melodist to
a fine racer, and counterpointists to hack post-horses; therefore
be advised, let well alone and remember the old Italian proverb:
Chi sa piu, meno sa--'Who knows most, knows least.'" -- W. A. Mozart

(To the English tenor Michael Kelly, about 1786, in answer to
Kelly's question whether or not he should take up the study of
counterpoint.)

2005-05-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

"If one has the talent it pushes for utterance and torments
one; it will out; and then one is out with it without
questioning. And, look you, there is nothing in this thing of
learning out of books. Here, here and here (pointing to his ear,
his head and his heart) is your school. If everything is right
there, then take your pen and down with it; afterward ask the
opinion of a man who knows his business." -- W. A. Mozart

(To a musically talented boy who asked Mozart how one might learn to compose.)

2005-01-16T08:36:00.000-08:00

"Playing and composing was like a religion for me, and then it became a profession" -- Jan A.P. Kaczmarek

The Music of Jan AP Kaczmarek

2005-01-15T11:12:00.000-08:00

"The constant searching for new ways of using film music was one of things I was most interested in. I have tried more conventional forms as well, just for the fun of it." --Howard Shore

Studio Tech
learn about the technology that makes it all happen

2004-12-14T04:02:00.000-08:00

In POETRY IN THE MAKING (1970) Hughes stated that there is no ideal form of poetry or writing. His poetry ranged from free verse to highly structured forms and rhyme schemes. He gradually abandoned traditional forms and stated that the "very sound of metre calls up the ghosts of the past and it is difficult to sing one's own tune against the choir."

Ted Hughes (1930-1998) - byname of Edward J. Hughes

2004-12-14T03:14:00.000-08:00

"I think of poems as a short of animals. They have their own life, like animals, by which I mean that they seem quite separate from any person, even from their author, and nothing can be added to them or taken away without maiming and perhaps even killing them. And they have a certain wisdom. they know something special... something perhaps which we are very curious to learn" --Ted Huges

2004-12-09T10:47:00.000-08:00

"may i feel said he
(i’ll squeal said she
just once said he)
it’s fun said she" -- E.E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings

An Unofficial EE Cummings Starting Point

2004-12-08T17:16:00.000-08:00

When he arrived at Oxford as an undergraduate, W. H. Auden went to see his tutor in literature, who asked the young man what he meant to do in later life. "I am going to be a poet," Auden answered. "Ah, yes," replied the tutor, and began a small lecture on verse exercises improving one's prose. Auden scowled. "You don't understand at all," he interrupted. "I mean a great poet."

W.H.Auden. Selected poems

2004-12-07T05:17:00.001-08:00

"Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers." -- T. S. Eliot

What the Thunder Said

2004-12-07T05:17:00.000-08:00

"I like any and all of my associations with music – writing, playing, and listening. We write and play from our perspective, and the audience listens from its perspective. If and when we agree, I am lucky." -- Duke Ellington

Official Web Site of Duke Ellington

2004-12-06T21:48:00.000-08:00

"And with your commission --
And your ambition --
And their tradition
Of acquisition
We'll build
A Place
For a new world to play.
Where have you been all my life?
Don't go away!" -- Stephen Sondheim

Where Stephen Sondheim and the internet collide

2004-12-06T21:11:00.000-08:00

"True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today." -- George Gershwin

2004-12-06T20:49:00.000-08:00

"I once referred to the music department at Universal as a salt mine. But it was a good salt mine, and younger composers in film today do not have access to that kind of on-the-job training. Being on staff there I was called upon to do everything. I mean, everything. Whenever they needed a piece of source music, music that comes from a source in the picture, such as a band, a jukebox, or a radio, they would call me in. I would do an arrangement on something that was in the Universal library, or I would write a new piece for a jazz band or a Latin band or whatever. I guess in every business you have to learn the routine--in film scoring, the cliches--before you can begin to find your own way." -- Henry Mancini

Musicmaker Henry Mancini

2004-12-06T20:38:00.000-08:00

"I have to laugh to myself. I don't find it work to write music, because I enjoy it. I'd find an evening of bridge hard work, because you have to think like hell and at the end you get nothing for it." -- Richard Rodgers

On This Day: Birthdays: June 28

2004-12-06T20:25:00.000-08:00

"You want people to like the songs. You want people to like everything you do. If you didn't, you wouldn't be human. And, you'd like to walk along the street and hear some kid whistling a tune that you wrote. This is one of the most gratifying sensations in the world." -- Richard Rodgers

Easy to Remember:
A Centennial Tribute to Richard Rodgers

2004-12-06T19:16:00.000-08:00

“I don’t have any background, but I now instinctively understand how film works. And I don’t think you can teach it. One just has to do it,” --Hans Zimmer

Speaking Through Music

2004-12-06T18:08:00.000-08:00

Mr. Porter himself could not characterize his songs.

"I don't know how my music gets that way," he said when he was asked to make the effort. "I simply can't analyze it. I can analyze the music of others. The word for Dick Rodgers's melodies, I think, is holy. For Jerome Kern, sentimental. For Irving Berlin, simplicity. For my own, I don't know."

On This Day: Birthdays: June 9

2004-12-06T18:03:00.000-08:00

"It is the melody which is the charm of music, and it is that which is most difficult to produce" --Joseph Haydn.