“The late Bill Nye once said "I have been told that Wagner's music is better than it sounds."”

—  Mark Twain

Source: Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (2010), p. 288

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American author and humorist 1835–1910

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Mark Twain photo

“Wagner's music is better than it sounds.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Actually by Bill Nye, possibly confused due to Nye quoting Twain in More Tramps Abroad, 1897. (See also autobiography, vol. 1, p. 288.)
Misattributed

“The relation of the performance of music to sound is complex and ambiguous: this is what makes possible Mark Twain's joke that Wagner is better than he sounds.”

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Source: Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist (2002), Ch. 1 Body and Mind

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“The peculiar characteristic of classical music is that it is really better than it sounds.”

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Attributed
Variant: Wagner's music is better than it sounds (attested in an obituary; see The Quote Verifier)

“Whoever said "Wagner's music isn't as bad as it sounds" was as wrong as he was funny, but there is surely a case for saying that the story of Captain Ahab's contest with the great white whale is one of those books you can't get started with even after you have finished reading them.”

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“Better that we leave the paint behind," Hans told her, "than ever forget the music.”

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“The idea that beauty is revolution is a revelation to me. I once believed that the concept of the music was more important than the sound, that the politics of the notation was more important than the time limits of the rehersals and therefore, more important than the sound of the performance”

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