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All music is just a collision of sounds until you know its internal conventions and understand the nuances. It's a question of familiarity.
Max Richter
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Music requires understanding and familiarity to appreciate its depth.

Max Richter suggests that music, at first glance, may seem like a mere assortment of sounds. However, to truly appreciate and understand music, one must familiarize themselves with its structures, conventions, and subtleties, which transform those sounds into a profound experience. This highlights the importance of insight and experience in the appreciation of artistic forms.

Themes

MusicUnderstandingSoundsAppreciationArt

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about the importance of music in education, one could say, 'As Max Richter wisely noted, all music is just a collision of sounds until we learn to understand it.'

More from Max Richter

Often, especially young artists, you feel like you should be doing something. And I think that can be very destructive because creativity is about connecting with the stuff that's deep inside you and making something out of that.
Max RichterRead
I'm suspicious of the idea of categories in music and this idea of things being in boxes. To me, that seems unnatural. I write the music that somebody with my biography would write, and the thing that's always driven me is an enthusiasm for the material. I sort of follow the notes to where they want to go.
Max RichterRead
The thing that makes me want to write a piece of music is having something to talk about, you know? Something I want to get across. Because I'm a composer, music is my first language, and that's what I reach for when I want to convey something.
Max RichterRead

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