“The grand tune is the only thing in music that the great public really understands.”
Conductors by John L. Holmes (1988) pp 31-37 ISBN 0-575-04088-2
Thomas Beecham: Quotes about music
Thomas Beecham was British conductor and impresario. Explore interesting quotes on music.Thomas Beecham: 24 quotes1 like
“The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought.”
Quoted in Atkins and Newman, Beecham Stories, 1978
“The musical equivalent of the towers of St Pancras Station”
Of Edward Elgar's 1st symphony
Neville Cardus: Sir Thomas Beecham, A Memoir, (1961)
“A musicologist is a man who can read music but can't hear it.”
Quoted by H. Proctor-Gregg, Beecham Remembered (1976), p. 154
[Beecham admitted to Neville Cardus that he had made this up on the spur of the moment to satisfy an importunate journalist; he acknowledged that it was an oversimplification. (Neville Cardus: 'Sir Thomas Beecham, A Memoir', 1961)]
“No composer has written as much as 100 bars of worthwhile music since 1925.”
Conductors by John L. Holmes (1988) pp 31-37 ISBN 0-575-04088-2