I find above all that the expression, atonal music, is most unfortunate — it is on a par with calling flying the art of not falling, or swimming the art of not drowning.
Interpretation
Schoenberg critiques the label 'atonal music' by comparing it to negative definitions of other art forms.
In this quote, Arnold Schoenberg expresses his discontent with the term 'atonal music,' suggesting that such a label reduces a complex and rich art form to a mere absence or avoidance of conventional elements. By likening it to describing flying as simply not falling, Schoenberg emphasizes that true art transcends simple definitions based on what it lacks and instead should be appreciated for its unique qualities and expressions.
In practice
In a lecture on modern music, this quote can illustrate the complexity of art definitions.
I never was very capable of expressing my feelings or emotions in words. I don't know whether this is the cause why I did it in music and also why I did it in painting. Or vice versa: That I had this way as an outlet. I could renounce expressing something in words.
I owe very, very much to Mozart; and if one studies, for instance, the way in which I write for string quartet, then one cannot deny that I have learned this directly from Mozart. And I am proud of it!
There is still plenty of good music to be written in C major.
I am the slave of an internal power more powerful than my education.
My music is not modern, it is merely badly played
The moon was sharp enough to draw blood from a stone
A writer's work is the product of laziness.
Maybe I'm outdated in thinking this, but because I'm a young black woman and don't see very many being the lead in a film, I have this fear: 'Will I be working?'
When I was born, the doctor looked at my mother and said, "Congratulations, you have an actor!"
Music, when combined with a pleasurable idea, is poetry; music, without the idea, is simply music; the idea, without the music, is prose, from its very definitiveness.
Bad writing is more than a matter of (expletive deleted) syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street.
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