“Music should humbly seek to please; within these limits great beauty may perhaps be found.”
Quoted in French Music : From the Death of Berlioz to the Death of Fauré (1951) by Martin Cooper, p. 136, and in Debussy and Wagner (1979) by Robin Holloway, p. 207
Context: Music should humbly seek to please; within these limits great beauty may perhaps be found. Extreme complication is contrary to art. Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part.
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Claude Debussy 34
French composer 1862–1918Related quotes
A General History of Music ([1776-89] 1935) vol. 1, page 22
Letter to Isaac Glikman, August 28, 1955; Josiah Fisk & Jeff Nichols (eds.) Composers on Music (1997) p. 364.
“Nothing is so difficult but that it may be found out by seeking.”
Nil tam difficile est quin quaerendo investigari possit.
Act IV, scene 2, line 8 (675).
Heauton Timorumenos (The Self-Tormentor)
“Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.”
1940s, A History of Western Philosophy (1945)
In Marc Chagall 1887-1985: Painting As Poetry by Ingo F. Walther, Rainer Metzger, p. 78
after 1930
The Human Biocomputer (1974) <!-- London: Abacus -->
Context: In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the mind, there are no limits... In the province of connected minds, what the network believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the network's mind there are no limits.
www.internationalspeakers.com February 1, 2007
2007, 2008