Music is the arithmetic of sounds as optics is the geometry of light.
Claude DebussyRead
If we look at the works of JS Bach ... on each page we discover things which we thought were born only yesterday, from delightful arabesques to an overflowing of religious feeling greater than anything we have since discovered.
Interpretation
Debussy expresses admiration for Bach's enduring artistry and the timeless beauty found in his works.
In this quote, Claude Debussy reflects on the profound impact of Johann Sebastian Bach's music, suggesting that each page reveals both innovative ideas and deep feelings of spirituality. Debussy believes that Bach's creations possess an ageless quality that resonates with emotions and artistic expression, highlighting the richness and depth of Bach's genius that continues to inspire even in contemporary times.
In practice
During a discussion on classical music, one might say this quote to emphasize Bach's timeless influence.
Music is the arithmetic of sounds as optics is the geometry of light.
The colour of my soul is iron-grey and sad bats wheel about the steeple of my dreams.
On those who overanalyze his music: When you tear the wings off a butterfly, it is no longer a butterfly
But music, don't you know, is a dream from which the veils have been lifted. It's not even the expression of a feeling, it's the feeling itself.
People come to music to seek oblivion: is that not also a form of deception?
Some people wish above all to conform to the rules, I wish only to render what I can hear.
Oh! snatched away in beauty's bloom,_x000D_ _x000D_ On thee shall press no ponderous tomb;_x000D_ _x000D_ But on thy turf shall roses rear_x000D_ _x000D_ Their leaves, the earliest of the year.
There are beautiful sounds in rock. Very lazy, dreamlike noises. You can forget about the lyrics in most songs. Just dig the noise, and you've got your sound...We're musical primitives.
The poetical impression of any object is that uneasy, exquisite sense of beauty or power that cannot be contained within itself; that is impatient of all limit; that (as flame bends to flame) strives to link itself to some other image of kindred beauty or grandeur; to enshrine itself, as it were, in the highest forms of fancy, and to relieve the aching sense of pleasure by expressing it in the boldest manner.
I love being onstage. I love the relationship with the audience. I love the letting go, the sense of discovery, the improvising.
If you practice for ten years, you may begin to please yourself, after 20 years you may become a performer and please the audience, after 30 years you may please even your guru, but you must practice for many more years before you finally become a true artist-then you may please even God.
There is an angel imprisoned in it and I must set it free.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.