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)
The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
I am an inventor of music, not a performer.
Silence is the best music sometimes.
Composers combine notes, that's all.
The firebird is a symbol of the soul's immortality.
Exile is a dream of glorious isolation.
Rhythm is the soul of music.
I write music for myself, not for posterity.
The ballet is a woman dancing with her hands.
Innovation is not a matter of rejecting the past, but of embracing it.
My God, so much I still have to say to the world!
Harmonies are dangerous if not used properly.
The public doesn't understand my music, but that's their problem.
Life is a composition of rhythms.
I am Russian by birth, but I am a citizen of the world.
The score is the Bible; the conductor is the priest.
Beauty is the sole ambition, the sole prayer, the sole apotheosis.
Music must be heard, not explained.
I am the most religious man in the world. I believe in God, I believe in the devil, I believe in myself, I believe in everything.
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.
Contemporaries of Igor Stravinsky
Other Musics born within 50 years of Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971).