Music is the arithmetic of sounds as optics is the geometry of light.
Claude DebussyRead
The colour of my soul is iron-grey and sad bats wheel about the steeple of my dreams.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a deep sense of melancholy and artistic introspection.
In this quote, Claude Debussy uses vivid imagery to convey the emotional state of his soul, comparing it to an 'iron-grey' color, which symbolizes heaviness and sadness. The 'bats' wheeling around the 'steeple of my dreams' suggests a haunting presence of despair that disturbs his aspirations, illustrating the juxtaposition of beauty in music and the struggle of the artist with inner darkness.
Themes
SoulMelancholyDreamsArtEmotion
In practice
Example use cases
During a poetry reading (to express the emotional depth of art).
More from Claude Debussy
All quotes βOn those who overanalyze his music: When you tear the wings off a butterfly, it is no longer a butterfly
Claude DebussyRead
But music, don't you know, is a dream from which the veils have been lifted. It's not even the expression of a feeling, it's the feeling itself.
Claude DebussyRead
People come to music to seek oblivion: is that not also a form of deception?
Claude DebussyRead
Some people wish above all to conform to the rules, I wish only to render what I can hear.
Claude DebussyRead
Art is the most beautiful deception of all!
Claude DebussyRead
Similar quotes
Wherefore the mere practical architect is not able to assign sufficient reasons for the forms he adopts; and the theoretic architect also fails, grasping the shadow instead of the substance.
VitruviusRead
Writing keeps me at my desk, constantly trying to write a perfect sentence. It is a great privilege to make one's living from writing sentences. The sentence is the greatest invention of civilization. To sit all day long assembling these extraordinary strings of words is a marvelous thing. I couldn't ask for anything better. It's as near to godliness as I can get.
John BanvilleRead
I ain't never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder.
Dolly PartonRead
I change the language with which I use my voice. In opera, I know I have an orchestra behind me; I have to communicate to people very far from me.
Andrea BocelliRead
I don't know what it's like for a book writer or a doctor or a teacher as they work to get established in their jobs, but for a singer, you've got to continue to grow or else you're just like last night's cornbread...stale and dry.
Loretta LynnRead
What goes on in abstract art is the proclaiming of aesthetic principles... It is in our own time that we have become aware of pure aesthetic considerations. Art never can be imitation.
Hans HofmannRead