Before I compose a piece, I walk round it several times, accompanied by myself.
Erik SatieRead
The musician is perhaps the most modest of animals, but he is also the proudest. It is he who invented the sublime art of ruining poetry.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the dual nature of musicians, emphasizing their humility and pride while pointing to their unique ability to reinterpret poetry.
Erik Satie's quote reflects on the paradoxical nature of musicians, describing them as modest yet proud individuals. It suggests that while they may not seek the spotlight, their contributions to art, particularly in transforming poetry into music, can be both humble and profoundly impactful, albeit sometimes leading to unexpected and unconventional interpretations.
In practice
This quote can be used during a speech at a music festival to highlight the balance of modesty and pride in artistic expression.
Before I compose a piece, I walk round it several times, accompanied by myself.
What music is better able to do than language is to represent the complexity of human emotional states.
The two ideas are antithetical. Insofar as photography is (or should be) about the world, the photographer counts for little, but insofar as it is the instrument of intrepid, questioning subjectivity, the photographer is all.
My painting does not come from the easel.
When you begin a picture you often make some pretty discoveries. You must be on guard against these. Destroy the thing, do it over several times. In each destroying of a beautiful discovery, the artist does not really suppress it, but rather condenses it, makes it more substantial. What comes out in the end is the result of discarded finds. Otherwise you become your own connoisseur.
Here's what happens in a play. You get involved in a situation where something is unbalanced. If nothing's unbalanced, there's no reason to have a play. If Hamlet comes home from school, and his dad's not dead and asks him if he's had a good time, it's boring. But if something's unbalanced, it must be returned to order.
I always felt that I was a writer, that was what I had to do.
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