Skip to content

Music has its existence on the borderline between meaning and nonsense. That is why most attempts to attribute a specific meaning to a piece of music seem to be beside the point—even when the attribution is authoritative, even when it is made by the composer himself.

— Charles Rosen The Frontiers of Meaning: Three Informal Lectures on Music (1994)

Another quote →

More quotes by Charles Rosen

Visual delight, sentiment, and exploration become one in the new appreciation of landscape and Nature.

The Romantic Generation (1995)

None of Chopin's contemporaries could rival him for the variety and effectiveness of his treatment of the return.

The Romantic Generation (1995)

It is above all through landscape that music joins Romantic art and literature.

The Romantic Generation (1995)

Understanding music simply means not being irritated or puzzled by it.

The Frontiers of Meaning: Three Informal Lectures on Music (1994)

Schumann's humor is rarely either witty or light: the unrealizable musical structure, the musical motto hidden and partly inaudible, must have stirred his musical fantasy.

The Romantic Generation (1995)

All Charles Rosen quotes →

Attribution

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