Igor Stravinsky: Composer

Igor Stravinsky was Russian composer, pianist and conductor. Explore interesting quotes on composer.

Igor Stravinsky: 26 quotes 10 likes

“The over-publicized bit about expression (or non-expression) was simply a way of saying that music is supra-personal and super-real and as such beyond verbal meanings and verbal descriptions. It was aimed against the notion that a piece of music is in reality a transcendental idea "expressed in terms of" music, with the reductio ad absurdum implication that exact sets of correlatives must exist between a composer's feelings and his notation. It was offhand and annoyingly incomplete, but even the stupider critics could have seen that it did not deny musical expressivity, but only the validity of a type of verbal statement about musical expressivity. I stand by the remark, incidentally, though today I would put it the other way around: music expresses itself.”

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft (1962). Expositions and Developments.
1960s

Stupidity , Music , Way , Feeling

“I was…attacked for being a pasticheur, chided for composing “simple” music, blamed for deserting “modernism,” accused of renouncing my “true Russian heritage.” People who had never heard of, or cared about, the originals cried “sacrilege”: “The classics are ours. Leave the classics alone.” To them all my answer was and is the same: You “respect,” but I love.”

Igor Stravinsky

Expositions and Developments (1959), pp. 113-114
1950s

Love , People , Music

“Composers combine notes, that's all.”

Igor Stravinsky

Source: 1970s and later, Themes and Conclusions (1982), p. 52 : Dialogues.