Igor Stravinsky Music Quotations

I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.

To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.

The Church knew what the psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the Church's greatest ornament.

Music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the coordination between man and time.

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.

A good composer does not imitate; he steals.

Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.

I know that the twelve notes in each octave and the variety of rhythm offer me opportunities that all of human genius will never exhaust.

I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I've felt it

The performance of performance has developed to such an extent in recent years that it challenges the music itself and will soon threaten it with relegation.

Music is given to us specifically to make order of things, to move from an anarchic, individualistic state to a regulated, perfectly concious one, which alone insures vitality and durability.

I live neither in the past nor in the future. I am in the present. I cannot know what tomorrow will bring forth. I can know only what the truth is for me today. That is what I am called upon to serve, and I serve it in all lucidity.