“The art of music above all the other arts is the expression of the soul of a nation.”
National Music (1934) p. 123.
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Quotes about music
Ralph Vaughan Williams was English composer. Explore interesting quotes on music.
Ralph Vaughan Williams:
26
quotes
0
likes
“It never seems to occur to people that a man might just want to write a piece of music.”
Quoted in Michael Kennedy The Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams ([1964] 1992) p. 302. He reportedly said this to Roy Douglas regarding whether his Symphony No.6 was meant to be programmatic.
Said to Sylvia Townsend Warner two weeks before his death; published in William Maxwell (ed.) The Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner (1982) p. 168.
"Who Wants the English Composer?" (1912); cited from Ursula Vaughan Williams RVW (1964) pp. 101-2.
“The duty of the words is to say just as much as the music has left unsaid and no more.”
From an article in The Vocalist magazine, 1902; cited from Ursula Vaughan Williams RVW (1964) p. 400.