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I like to think that if music hadn't existed, I could have invented it.

— Harrison Birtwistle

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Music

More quotes by Harrison Birtwistle

Composing's not voluntary, you know. There's no choice, you're not free. You're landed with an idea and you have responsibility to that idea.

My attitude to writing is.. it's like when you do wallpapering, you know, you remember where all the little bits are that don't meet, you think: "Oh my God that's horrible..." And then your friends come and say: "Who did this wallpapering? It's terrific!"

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