Igor Stravinsky
Rite of Spring revolutionized modern music
Most quoted
"What is important for the lucid ordering of the work—for its crystallization—is that all the Dionysian elements which set the imagination of the artist in motion and make the life-sap rise must be properly subjugated before they intoxicate us, and must finally be made to submit to the law: Apollo demands it."
— from Poetics of Music, 1939
"For I consider that music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all, whether a feeling, an attitude, a psychological state, a natural phenomenon, etc.... Expression has never been an inherent property of music and is certainly not the aim of its existence."
— from An Autobiography (Chroniques de ma vie), 1936
"The faculty of creating is never given to us all by itself. It always goes hand in hand with the gift of observation. And the true creator may be recognized by his ability always to find about him, in the commonest and humblest thing, items worthy of note."
— from Poetics of Music, 1939
All quotes by Igor Stravinsky (372)
I am not interested in the 'feeling' of music. I am interested in the form.
I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.
Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.
I am not a composer of 'modern' music. I am a composer of music.
To listen is an effort, and a serious effort, and a serious effort is not a popular thing.
I have learned that it is better to be a good composer than a bad one.
My music is not 'difficult.' It is merely unfamiliar.
I was not a child prodigy. I was a child.
Music is given to us to organize what is otherwise a chaos.
I hate to be quoted, but I love to be misquoted.
I have always been a man of my time, and I have always been a man of my own time.
The trouble with music is that it's so difficult to get it out of your head.
I confess that I am a thief. I steal from everyone.
I am not an innovator. I am a discoverer.
I have never understood why people are so afraid of new music. It's just music.
I love to compose. I hate to write.
I have always tried to be as objective as possible in my music, but I am a human being.
My music is a series of shocks, not a continuous flow.
I don't understand why people are so surprised that I am still alive. I am a very healthy man.
I have never been interested in being 'original.' I am interested in being myself.
Contemporaries of Igor Stravinsky
Other Musics born within 50 years of Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971).