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Is it not our duty to find the symphonic formula which fits our time, one which progress, daring and modern victory demand? The century of airplanes has a right to its own music.

— Claude Debussy Music in History : The Evolution of an Art (1957)

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Notes from Wikiquote

As quoted in An Encyclopedia of Quotations About Music (1981) by Nat Shapiro, p. 69

Variants

The century of aeroplanes deserves its own music. As there are no precedents, I must create anew.

More quotes by Claude Debussy

How much has to be explored and discarded before reaching the naked flesh of feeling.

Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1979)

To feel the supreme and moving beauty of the spectacle to which Nature invites her ephemeral guests! … that is what I call prayer.

Claude Debussy: His Life and Works (1933)

The worship of Adonis is united with that of Christ.

Music is the arithmetic of sounds as optics is the geometry of light.

The attraction of the virtuoso for the public is very like that of the circus for the crowd. There is always the hope that something dangerous may happen.

Music in the Modern World (1948)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Claude Debussy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.