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 purpose of writing is both to keep up with life and to run ahead of it. I am little comfort to myself, although I am the only comfort I have, excepting perhaps streets, clouds, the sun, the faces and voices of kids and the aged, and similar accidents of beauty, innocence, truth and loneliness.
I like ruins because what remains is not the total design, but the clarity of thought, the naked structure, the spirit of the thing.
When I look back and think how fortunate I've been to work with some wonderful people and had some marvelous experiences, then I can look at 'Star Trek' and think it's almost like the cream on the coffee. I don't approach it as anything but a magnificent plus.
Black is the Color and none is the number
I think my work has to do with a sense that we are attempting, all the time, to create a logical, rational path through the day. To the left and right there are an amazing set of distractions that we usually can't afford to follow. But the poet is willing to stop anywhere.
Television, above all, is the place where people can see the world they live in, and if the world they live in is a world without the arts, so much the worse for television, and so much the worse for the viewers.
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