An Encyclopedia of Quotations About MusicWriting about music-about what it is and what it means-is akin to describing the act of love. Somehow, the reduction of the experience to an unblushingly detailed exposition of how, where, when, and why who does what to whom, from prelude to resolu tion, loses everything in the translation. The other extreme, the one wherein the writer, in desperation, resorts to metaphor (with or without benefit of meter and rhyme), most often results in im agery that is banal, vulgar, inane, obscure, pretentious, and almost always insufferably romantic. To achieve good and accurate writing about music is as rare an accomplishment as expert wine-tasting, lion-taming, diamond-cut ting, truffie-finding and (if one just happens to be an unconverted Mohican brave) deer-tracking. Only the intuitive, the pure, the sensual, and the intrepid need apply. Professional musicians often evidence a fixed tendency either to rudely ignore or else to actively despise those of us who bravely try to understand, define, and describe their art. To many composers and instrumentalists, those outsiders (nonmusicians) who have the temerity to discuss anything more abstract than the digital dexterity of a fiddler, the particular vanity of a conductor, or the wage scales for overtime recording sessions are judged worthy only of contempt or-at the most-patronizing tolerance. "Music means itself," insists one of the contributors to the collection that follows, and many practitioners of the art of organ ized sound would prefer to leave it at that. |
Contents
31 | |
Part Three EXPONENTS | 73 |
Part Four PROPONENTS AND OPPONENTS | 122 |
Part Six THE UNIVERSAL | 179 |
The Medicine of a Troubled Mind | 181 |
375 | 187 |
Emotions Vapors and Dispositions | 191 |
The Food of Love | 201 |
The OpenAir Art | 268 |
A Jug of Wine a Loaf of Bread | 270 |
Like the Birdies Sing | 273 |
Sight and Sound | 276 |
Part Seven MUSIC FOR THE MILLIONS | 278 |
Jazz | 281 |
Blues and Blacks | 293 |
Rock | 301 |
The Lingering Melody | 208 |
Let Me Have Music Dying | 214 |
Solitude | 220 |
Warriors Fired with Animated Sounds | 221 |
Consort Not with a Female Musician | 226 |
Sing Me a Song with Social Significance | 231 |
The Only Sensual Pleasure Without Vice | 241 |
The Truth of Song | 244 |
Tones in Time | 247 |
Education | 250 |
The Gift of God | 254 |
The Soul of a Nation | 261 |
The Sweetest Physic in the World | 265 |
Popular and Light | 307 |
Folk | 312 |
Dance | 315 |
Film and Theater | 318 |
MISCELLANY | 322 |
The Music of the Spheres | 325 |
Music as Metaphor | 331 |
Proverbs Aphorisms Wordplay and Assorted Musical Saws | 341 |
41 | 351 |
INDEX OF KEY WORDS AND PHRASES | 362 |
The Wings of Song | 365 |
Opera and Opera Singers | 380 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abram Chasins Amadeus American Anonymous Arthur artist Bach beautiful Beethoven blues century B.C. Charles charm composer critics dance doth dream drum Edited by Nat Edward emotions expression feeling fiddle flute George Bernard Shaw give H. L. Mencken harmony harp hath Hear Me Talkin heard heart heaven Hector Berlioz human Igor Stravinsky instrument Isaac Goldberg James Jazz Jean Letter listen living Lord Louis lyrical melody mind Mozart musician Nat Hentoff Nat Shapiro Ned Rorem Negro never night notes Old Testament opera orchestra Oscar Oscar Hammerstein II passions Paul Peter piano play pleasure poetry poets Popular song title praise proverb Ralph rhythm Richard Wagner Robert Schumann Rock Rorem Rossini Samuel sing singer Sir Ernest Newman Sir Thomas Beecham soul sound spirit string sung sweet sweetest symphony There's thing tones trumpet tune violin voice Walter William Shakespeare words York