So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.
Aaron CoplandRead
The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking "Is there a meaning to music?" My answer would be, "Yes", And "Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?" My answer to that would be "No."
Interpretation
The quote expresses the complexity of understanding the meaning of music, affirming its existence while acknowledging the difficulty of articulating it.
Aaron Copland emphasizes that while music undoubtedly holds meaning, it eludes simplistic verbal description. Music resonates deeply and can convey emotions and messages that are often beyond the reach of words, highlighting the intrinsic value and subjective experience of art.
In practice
During a lecture on the significance of art in human culture.
So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.
I hope my recordings of my own works won't inhibit other people's performances. The brutal fact is that one doesn't always get the exact tempo one wants, although one improves with experience.
Someone once asked me... whether I waited for inspiration. My answer was: "Every day!"
To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.
Music that is born complex is not inherently better or worse than music that is born simple.
You compose because you want to somehow summarize in some permanent form your most basic feelings about being alive, to set down some sort of permanent statement about the way it feels to live now, today.
When I'm writing, I'm trying to immerse myself in the chaos of an emotional experience, rather than separate myself from it and look back at it from a distance with clarity and tell it as a story. Because that's how life is lived, you know?
In a way, editing is not unlike the movies. The best books, just like the best movies, are a collaboration. They're only as good as the compromise made between the artists involved.
I believe in professionalism, but playing is not like a job. You have to be grateful to have the opportunity to play.
What critics call dirty in our pictures, they call lusty in foreign films.
As a novelist, where do you go to tap into memories, and impressions, and sensations? It's usually, in my experience, your early life, before you started thinking of yourself as a writer, because somehow those experiences are unadulterated.
Reviews for someone like me come in three packages. One is justifiable praise, the second is justifiable criticism, and the third is, "This is only published because he's a celebrity."
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