As quoted in Debussy (1989) by Paul Holmes, p. 36
Context: Music would take over at the point at which words become powerless, with the one and only object of expressing that which nothing but music could express. For this, I need a text by a poet who, resorting to discreet suggestion rather than full statement, will enable me to graft my dream upon his dream — who will give me plain human beings in a setting belonging to no particular period or country. … Then I do not wish my music to drown the words, nor to delay the course of the action. I want no purely musical developments which are not called for inevitably by the text. In opera there is always too much singing. Music should be as swift and mobile as the words themselves.
“The composer does not want the self-sufficiency of a richly complex text: he or she wants to feel that the text is something in need of musical setting.”
Source: An Introduction to English Poetry (2002), Ch. 21: Song (p. 115)
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James Fenton 17
poet 1949Related quotes
“The worst speak something good; if all want sense,
God takes a text, and preacheth Pa-ti-ence.”
The Temple (1633), The Church Porch
Source: Textual politics: Discourse and social dynamics, 1995, p. 35
"105 Years of Illustrated Text" in the Zoetrope All-Story, Vol. 5 No. 1.
105 Years of Illustrated Text
Quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812.
“I text tiny a minute later.
MADE NEW GAY FRIEND.
And he texts back
PROGRESS!!!”
Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Source: The Story Of The Bible, Chapter X, The Position Today, p. 142