To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.
Robert SchumannRead
We have learned to express the more delicate nuances of feeling by penetrating more deeply into the mysteries of harmony.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the profound connection between emotional expression and musical harmony.
Robert Schumann emphasizes that as artists and musicians, we have developed our ability to convey complex emotions by exploring and understanding the intricate aspects of harmony in music. This suggests that the depth of emotional expression in art is closely tied to our mastery of its technical elements.
In practice
During a music appreciation class, this quote can illustrate the depth of emotional communication in compositions.
To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.
It was an unforgettable picture to see Chopin sitting at the piano like a clairvoyant, lost in his dreams; to see how his vision communicated itself through his playing, and how, at the end of each piece, he had the sad habit of running one finger over the length of the plaintive keyboard, as though to tear himself forcibly away from his dream.
I am so fresh in soul and spirit that life gushes and bubbles around me in a thousand springs.
Think it a vile habit to alter works of good composers, to omit parts of them, or to insert new-fashioned ornaments. This is the greatest insult you can offer to Art.
You write to become immortal, or because the piano happens to be open, or you've looked into a pair of beautiful eyes.
Endeavour to play easy pieces well and with elegance; that is better than to play difficult pieces badly.
My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems, seeing a painting, listening to some music, some opera, which has nothing at all to do with a volatile human condition or struggle or whatever. It enriches me as a human being.
You can't work in the movies. Movies are all about lighting. Very few filmmakers will concentrate on the story. You get very little rehearsal time, so anything you do onscreen is a kind of speed painting.
I hope to refine music, study it, try to find some area that I can unlock. I don't quite know how to explain it but it's there. These can't be the only notes in the world, there's got to be other notes some place, in some dimension, between the cracks on the piano keys.
The artist is of no importance. Only what he creates is important, since there is nothing new to be said. Shakespeare, Balzac, Homer have all written about the same things, and if they had lived one thousand or two thousand years longer, the publishers wouldn't have needed anyone since.
Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
Faded the flower and all its budded charms,Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes,Faded the shape of beauty from my arms,Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise!Vanishd unseasonably
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.