“Simple melody and variety in rhythm.”

—  Gioachino Rossini

Melodia semplice e varietà nel ritmo.
His motto for Italian music, formulated in a letter to Filippo Filippi, August 26, 1868; Luca Somigli Legitimizing the Artist (2003) p. 103.
Often misquoted as "Simple melody – clear rhythm!"

Original

Melodia semplice e varietà nel ritmo.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Nov. 14, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Simple melody and variety in rhythm." by Gioachino Rossini?
Gioachino Rossini photo
Gioachino Rossini 9
Italian composer 1792–1868

Related quotes

Daniel Levitin photo

“The coming together of rhythm and melody bridges our cerebellum and our cerebral cortex.”

Daniel Levitin (1957) American psychologist

This is Your Brain on Music (2006)

B.K.S. Iyengar photo

“Yoga is like music: the rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, and the harmony of the soul create the symphony of life/”

B.K.S. Iyengar (1918–2014) Indian yoga teacher and scholar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p. 59-60

“I think writing is basically about time and rhythm. Like with jazz. You have your basic melody and then you just riff off of it.”

Kathy Acker (1947–1997) American novelist, playwright, essayist, and poet

Kathy Acker: Where does she get off?
Context: I think writing is basically about time and rhythm. Like with jazz. You have your basic melody and then you just riff off of it. And the riffs are about timing. And about sex.
Writing for me is about my freedom. When I was a kid, my parents were like monsters to me, and the world extended from them. They were horrible. And I was this good little girl — I didn't have the guts to oppose them. They told me what to do and how to be. So the only time I could have any freedom or joy was when I was alone in my room. Writing is what I did when I was alone with no one watching me or telling me what to do. I could do whatever I wanted. So writing was really associated with body pleasure — it was the same thing. It was like the only thing I had.

Howard Gardner photo

“There is very little dispute about the principal constituent elements of music, though experts will differ on the precise definitions of each aspect. Most central are 'pitch' (or melody) and 'rhythm'… next in importance only to pitch and rhythm is 'timbre', the characteristic qualities of tone.”

Howard Gardner (1943) American developmental psychologist

Source: Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences., 1983, p.104

Yehudi Menuhin photo

“Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous.”

Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999) American violinist and conductor

Source: Jamesh A. Leit, George Whalley Symboles Dans la Vie Et Dans L'art http://books.google.co.in/books?id=pRZEKhofl_gC&pg=PA29, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 1987, p. 29

Piero Scaruffi photo

“Beatles' "aryan" music removed any trace of black music from rock and roll: it replaced syncopated african rhythm with linear western melody, and lusty negro attitudes with cute white-kid smiles.”

Piero Scaruffi (1955) Italian writer

Beatles The History of Rock Music http://www.scaruffi.com/vol1/beatles.html

“Joy can come alive like that, when random pieces of history and rhythm, pause and expectation, melody and lyric, suddenly rearrange themselves into a pattern that leaps up, back against the wall, and catches your heart.”

Andrea Lewis (writer) Microsoft employee

"Forty Years" Slow Trains Vol.7, Issue 3 (2008)
2000-09

Keith Richards photo

“What interested me about Chuck Berry was the way he could step out of the rhythm part with such ease, throwing in a nice, simple riff, and then drop straight into the feel of it again. We used to play a lot more rhythm stuff. We'd do away with the differences between lead and rhythm guitar. You can't go into a shop and ask for a "lead guitar."”

Keith Richards (1943) British rock musician, member of The Rolling Stones

You're a guitar player, and you play a guitar.
[Denyer, Ralph, The Guitar Handbook, 2002, Alfred A. Knopf, 0-679-74275-1].

John Betjeman photo

“There are two things you need for a jolly good hymn. The first is a set of words that expresses the mood or sentiment of the worshipper. The second—and perhaps even more important—is a good tune … with a simple popular melody.”

John Betjeman (1906–1984) English poet, writer and broadcaster

citation needed

Isaac Leib Peretz photo

“There are melodies that must have words… and melodies that sing themselves without words.”

Isaac Leib Peretz (1852–1915) Yiddish language author and playwright

Mekubolim, 1906. Alle Verk, vi. 53.
Context: There are melodies that must have words... and melodies that sing themselves without words. The latter are of a higher grade. But these, too, depend on a voice and lips,... hence are not yet altogether pure, not yet genuine spirit. Genuine melody sings itself without a voice. It sings inside, within the heart, in man's very entrails!

Related topics