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I was...attacked for being a pasticheur, chided for composing “simple” music, blamed for deserting “modernism,” accused of renouncing my “true Russian heritage.” People who had never heard of, or cared about, the originals cried “sacrilege”: “The classics are ours. Leave the classics alone.” To them all my answer was and is the same: You “respect,” but I love.

— Igor Stravinsky Expositions and Developments (1959)

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Music

More quotes by Igor Stravinsky

The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music; they should be taught to love it instead.

Music's exclusive function is to structure the flow of time and keep order in it.

What I cannot follow are the manic-depressive fluctuations from total control to no control, from the serialization of all elements to chance.

Themes and Conclusions (1982)

My music is best understood by children and animals.

Composers combine notes, that's all.

Themes and Conclusions (1982)

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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: Igor Stravinsky (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.