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 'soul' of music. I am interested in its 'body.'
The more one knows, the more one realizes how little one knows.
Music is a force that can move mountains.
The artist must be a master of his own destiny.
I am not interested in 'feeling' music. I am interested in 'hearing' it.
The true artist is one who can make the old new again.
Music is a form of organized sound, nothing more, nothing less.
The artist is a mirror of his time.
I do not believe in 'genius.' I believe in 'talent' and 'work.'
The purpose of music is to construct. It is not to express.
Music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all, whether a feeling, an attitude of mind, a psychological mood, a phenomenon of nature.
I was born out of due time in the sense that by temperament and talent I should have been more suited for the life of a small Bach, living in anonymity and composing regularly for an established service and for God.
The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music; they should be taught to love it instead.
I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.
Tradition is entirely different from habit, even from an excellent habit, since habit is by definition an unconscious acquisition and tends to become mechanical, whereas tradition results from a conscious and deliberate acceptance.
I know that the twelve notes in each octave and the variety of rhythm offer me opportunities that all of human genius will never exhaust.
Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has to the book I am reading.
Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.
I am an inventor of music.
A new piece is a new reality.
Contemporaries of Igor Stravinsky
Other Musics born within 50 years of Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971).