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)
Music is given to us to organize what is chaotic in us: it is a means of communication with the divine.
I am a man of my time, and I write music of my time.
I do not understand the word 'inspiration.' I understand the word 'work.'
The public is always wrong.
I am not interested in the 'beautiful' in music. I am interested in the 'true.'
The more a composer is aware of the laws of his art, the more he is free.
Music is not a language. It is a system of signs.
The artist is a craftsman. He must know his tools and his materials.
I do not compose with ideas, but with sounds.
My music is not 'modern.' It is simply 'new.'
The purpose of art is not to entertain, but to enlighten.
I am not a revolutionary, but a renovator.
The artist must be a master of his craft, not a slave to his emotions.
Music is a game. A game of sounds.
I am not interested in pleasing the public. I am interested in pleasing myself.
The composer is a discoverer, not an inventor.
The greatest art is that which is most difficult to understand.
I do not believe in inspiration. I believe in hard work.
Music is a form of mathematical thinking.
The artist's duty is to create order out of chaos.
Contemporaries of Igor Stravinsky
Other Musics born within 50 years of Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971).