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Composers should write tunes the chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.

— Thomas Beecham

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: New York Times, 9 March 1961
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

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I found it as alluring as a wayward woman and determined to tame it.

Conductors by John L. Holmes (1988)

The grand tune is the only thing in music that the great public really understands.

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If I cannot sing a work, I cannot conduct it.

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Asked if he had ever conducted any Stockhausen, he said, "No, but I once trod in some."

No composer has written as much as 100 bars of worthwhile music since 1925.

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The musical equivalent of the towers of St Pancras Station

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More quotes by Thomas Beecham

A musicologist is a man who can read music but can't hear it.

Too much counterpoint; what is worse, Protestant counterpoint.

Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.

The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought.

What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about."

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Attribution

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