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What do you think of Puccini?
[ Britten: "I think his operas are dreadful." ]
No, Ben, you are wrong. He wrote marvellous operas, but dreadful music.

— Dmitri Shostakovich Lord Harewood The Tongs and the Bones (1981)

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Music

More quotes by Dmitri Shostakovich

Real music is always revolutionary, for it cements the ranks of the people; it arouses them and leads them onward.

The Power of Music (1964)

The real geniuses know where their writing has to be good and where they can get away with some mediocrity.

It's about the people, who have stopped believing because the cup of evil has run over.

Testimony (1979)

I always try to make myself as widely understood as possible, and if I don't succeed I consider it's my own fault.

When a man is in despair, it means that he still believes in something.

Testimony (1979)

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The emphasis of study upon a particular aspect of music is in itself ideological because it contains implications about the music's value.

Lucy Green

Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

Thomas Carlyle Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827)

Music has no subject beyond the combinations of notes we hear, for music speaks not only by means of sounds, it speaks nothing but sound.

Eduard Hanslick

Above the pitch, out of tune, and off the hinges.

François Rabelais Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

Attribution

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