COMPOSERS ON MUSIC
The following excerpts are from:
Composers on Music
An Anthology of Composers’ Writings from Palestrina to Copeland
Edited by Sam Morgenstern
Copyright 1956 by Pantheon Books Inc.
Published by Bonanza Books a division of Crown Publishers
LCCCN 55-10283
These quotes are here to help me come to terms with non-12 tone equal temperament music, historical, modern, and "non-Western". They seem helpful though insufficient to that purpose. I do not necessarily agree with everything here, nor am I entirely aware of the complete context of all these statements. On the whole they seem to stand on their own.
Everything written in the last 75 years that has not become "public knowledge" has some sort of copyright restriction at least in the United States. Therefore, at the end of the table, I have simply paraphrased a few ideas from the more recent composers.
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And you shall find no point so well handled by any man, either Composer or Organist, but with some studie either he himselfe or some other might make it much better. P14 |
THOMAS MORLEY (1557-1603) From A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicalle Musicke, 1557 |
| As Poetry is the harmony of Words, so Musik is that of Notes… p33 |
HENRY PURCELL (1658-1695) From: Dedication to the Duke of Somerset of The Prophetess, or the History of Dioclesian, (written by Dryden) 1690 |
I find that we confuse measure with what is known as cadence or rhythm. Measure defines the quantity and equality of time, and cadence is properly the spirit or the soul which must be combined with it. P37 |
FRANCOIS COUPERIN (1668-1733) From The Art of Playing the Harpsichord, 1717 |
| A musician cannot move others unless he too is moved. He must feel all the emotions that he hopes to arouse in his audience. p60 | CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH (1714-1788) |
| I would sit down (at the piano), and begin to improvise, whether my spirits were sad or happy, serious or playful. Once I had captured an idea, I strove with all my might to develop and sustain it in conformity with the rules of art. In this way I tried to help myself, and this is where so many of our newer composers fall short: they string one little piece onto another and break-off when they have scarcely started. Nothing remains in the heart after one has listened to such compositions. p69 | JOSEPH HAYDEN (1732-1809) |
| Those high and mighty people who set to work in pedantic fashion will always come to grief, both they and their music. p82 | WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1759-1791) Letter to his father, Vienna, June 7,1781 |
| The golden mean of truth in all things is no longer either known or appreciated, In order to win applause one must write stuff which is so inane that a fiacre (cab-driver) could sing it, or so unintelligible that it pleases precisely because no sensible man can understand it. p83 | WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1759-1791) Letter to his father, Vienna, December 28, 1782 |
I carry my thoughts about with me for a long time, often for a very long time, before writing them down. I can rely on my memory for this and can be sure that, once I have grasped a theme, I shall not forget it even years later. I change many things, discard others, and try again and again until I am satisfied; then, in my head, I begin to elaborate the work in its breadth, its narrowness, its height, its depth and, since I am aware of what I want to do, the underlying idea never deserts me. It rises, it grows, I hear and see the image in front of me from every angle, as if it had been cast (like sculpture), and only the labor of writing it down remains, a labor which need not take long, but varies according to the time at my disposal, since I often work on several things at the same time. Yet I can always be sure that I shall not confuse one with another. You may ask me where I obtain my ideas. I cannot answer this with any certainty: they come unbidden, spontaneously or unspontaneously. I may grasp them with my hands in the open air, while walking in the woods, in the stillness of the night, at the early morning. Stimulated by those moods which poets turn into words, I turn my ideas into tones which resound, roar and rage until at last they stand before me in the form of notes. p 87 |
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) From a written conversation with Louis Schlosser (1822 or 1823) |
| There is so much talk about music and yet so little is said. For my part, I believe that words do not suffice for such a purpose, and if I found they did suffice I would finally have nothing more to do with music. p139 | FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) From letter to Marc-Andre Souchay, Berlin, October 15, 1842 |
| So-called vocal perfection concerns me little; I like to have roles sung as I wish, but am unable to provide the voice, the soul, that certain something which should be called the spark - it is usually described by the Italian phrase "to have the Devil on your back." p188 | GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813-1901) From letter to Giulio Ricordi, Sant' Agata, July 10, 1871 |
| 1. Works which I compose on my own initiative – 2. Works, which are inspired by external circumstances: the wish of a friend, or publisher, and commissioned works. In any case, it is absolutely necessary for a composer to shake off all the cares of daily existence, at least for a time, and give himself up entirely to his art-life… There is something somnambulistic about this condition. On ne s’entend pas vivre. It is impossible to describe such moments. Everything that flows from one’s pen, or merely passes through one’s brain (for such moments invariably come at a time when writing is an impossibility) under these circumstances is invariably good, and if no external obstacle comes to hinder the creative glow, the result will be an artist’s best and most perfect work. Unfortunately, such external hindrances are inevitable. A duty has to be performed, dinner is announced, a letter arrives, and so on. This is the reason why there exist so few compositions, which are of equal quality throughout. Hence the joins, patches, inequalities and discrepancies. For the works in my second category, it is necessary to get into the
mood. To do so, we are often obliged to fight indolence, and disinclination.
Besides this, there are many other fortuitous circumstances. Sometimes
the victory is easily gained. At other times inspiration eludes us, and
cannot be recaptured. I consider it, however, the duty of an artist not
to be conquered by circumstances. He must not wait. Inspiration is a guest
who does not care to visit those who are indolent. p254 |
PETER ILYITCH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893) From Letter to Mme von Meck, Kamenka, June 24 (July 6), 1878 |
| I am afraid that Turandot will never be finished. It is impossible to work like this. When fever abates, it ends by disappearing, and without fever there is no creation; because emotional art is a kind of malady, an exceptional state of mind, over-excitation of every fibre and every atom of one’s being, and so on, ad aeternam p295 | GIACOMO PUCCINI (1858-1924) From letter to Giuseppe Adami, Torre del Lago, November 10, 1920 |
| Besides, I am more and more convinced that music is not,
in essence, a thing which can be cast into a traditional and fixed form.
It is made up of colors and rhythms.
The rest is a lot of humbug invented by frigid imbeciles riding on the
backs of the Masters who have almost always written music of their own
time. p329 |
CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918) From letter to Jacques Durand, Pourville, September 3, 1907 |
| It is not enough that you yourself understand the singer's every word, which you know from memory; the public must be able to follow without effort. If the audience does not understand the text, it falls asleep. p332 | RICHARD STRAUSS (1864-1949 Ten Golden Rules Inscribed in the Album of a Young Conductor (ca 1925) |
| Many sounds that we are used to do not bother us, and for that reason, we are inclined to call them beautiful. p391 | CHARLES EDWARD IVES (1874-1954) From Essays Before a Sonata 1920 |
... the siguiriya is the typical song of the cante jondo group… p403 The popular use of the guitar represents two very definite musical values; external or immediately perceptible rhythm, and purely tonal harmonic value. And toque jondo has no rival in Europe. The harmonic effects which our guitarists produce unconsciously represent one of the marvels of natural art. P408-409 |
MANUEL DE FALLA (1876-1946) Analysis of Musical Elements of "Cante Jondo" 1922 |
The following ideas are paraphrased from more modern composers whose exact wording may be copyrighted. Again, they are concepts to keep in mind rather than absolute truths.
When the listener can follow an idea, its development and some reason for that development, a feeling of beauty and consonance is experienced. Arnold Shoenberg (1874-1951) paraphrased from page 377
Mechanically distorted music destroys the capacity for enjoying natural musical sounds. Igor Stravinsky(1882-1971) paraphrased from page 444
A single note is musically meaningless. It must be related to the surrounding notes to become significant. The relationship requires the creative cooperation of the listener as well as the sensibilities of the artist. Paul Hindemith (1895-1965) paraphrased from page 485, 480
Time and movement are essential to music and require constant renewal. Roger Sessions (1896-1985) paraphrased from page 508
New or revolutionary music, should be a response to a demand for something new and revolutionary. Carlos Chavez (1899-1978) paraphrased from page 524
The harmonic ideas of 12 tone equal temperament have been exhausted. Aaron Copeland (1900-1990) paraphrased from page 555
I may have paraphrased some of them incorrectly - if so, my apologies. The original quotes are better however, copyright laws should be respected, at least where there is no need to challenge them.
My topic is essentially the relationship between math and music. To demonstrate it I use the12 tone equal temperament (12tet) system I am familiar with and which has been in common use in the Western Tradition during the recent 'Scientific Revolution'. This web page gives me some idea of what the more successful composers in this tradition have thought about their own music.
The idea is to end up with a better idea of what music might accomplish for me and why I might want to spend time listening to other systems. It leads beyond my expertise though I think the website would be incomplete without some indication of other kinds of music - they can all be analyzed mathematically. Musicologists more interested in these things can research the material more thoroughly for themselves and obtain whatever permissions they may require.
I'm a 12 Tone Equal Temperament kind of guy and playing the standard guitar still keeps me challenged and happy and makes friends among a lot of the people I meet. Music to me is not so much the rules themselves but what is done with them (or in some cases, in spite of them). I would like to understand a little bit more of what I am doing now before going out to play under a different set of rules. Nevertheless, I have heard things that interest me in modern, historical, and cultural music from different places in the world and nothing stands still for very long these days, so I will keep my ears open. 10/23/04