If getting used to music is the essential condition for understanding, it is hard to see just what purpose is served by writing about it. A few experiences of listening to a symphony or nocturne are worth more than any essay or analysis. The work of art itself teaches us how to understand it, and makes the critic not merely parasitical but strictly superfluous.

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

More quotes by Charles Rosen

The Romantic Generation (1995)

The Romantic Generation (1995)

The Romantic Generation (1995)

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

The Romantic Generation (1995)

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.