Kurt Weill (1900-1950)

I have never acknowledged the difference between serious music and light music. There is only good music and bad music.

Sheet music: Kurt Weill

Anton von Webern (1883-1945)

"dazzling diamonds" (Stravinsky); "a novel in a single gesture, a joy in a breath" (Schoenberg) - Comments on Webern's Six Orchestral Pieces (op 6) and Five Orchestral Pieces (op 10)

Sheet music: Anton von Webern

Sir William Walton (1902-1983)

William Walton (1902-1983) was a British composer influenced by the works of Stravinsky and the Jazz genre. His works include two symphonies and concertos for violin, viola, and cello. He also wrote film music, including that for Henry V. Born in Lancashire in 1902 to a musical family, Walton was a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral at Oxford, later studied at the university and from 1920 lived with the Sitwell family in London. The three Sitwells siblings, all budding poets, introduced him to many major musical and literary figures of the time, including Delius, Diaghilev, and T. S. Eliot. His chamber entertainment Facade of 1921 soon became popular as an orchestral suite and ballet. The overture Portsmouth Point (1925) skyrocketed his international popularity, while the more introspective Viola Concerto (1929), premiered by Paul Hindemith, solidified his reputation in England and abroad. Three major blockbusters followed: the monstrous choral work, Belshazzar's Feast (1931), the First Symphony (1935) for conductor Hamilton Harty, and a Violin Concerto (1939) commissioned by Jascha Heifetz. The march Crown Imperial (1937), composed for the coronation of King George VI, placed him as Elgar's unofficial successor as master of the art of regalia. Walton was by this time considered the foremost composer of Britain, and became a symbol of the hope that English music might recapture the brilliance it had in Handel's day. During World War II, Walton primarily composed music for patriotic films, followed by the eight-year project Troilus and Cressida (1954), a tragic opera after the style of Puccini. By then, Benjamin Britten had risen to the scene and taken Walton's place in the eyes of the critics, who reduced the latter to the rank of a stubborn reactionary who allegedly never captured the feel of contemporary music. Nevertheless, Walton continued to compose in his own unique style, and some of his later output is quite remarkable, including an excellent Cello Concerto (1957) for Gregor Piatigorsky and commissions from the conductor Georg Szell (Partita for Orchestra, 1958), the Royal Philharmonic Society (Variations on a Theme of Hindemith, 1963), the Aldeburgh Festival (The Bear, 1967), and the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich (Passacaglia for Violoncello Solo, 1980). During these later years of his life, Walton lived on the island of Ischia, near Naples. He remained an active composer until his death there in 1983. - Malaspina Biography

Sheet music: William Walton

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)

"Villa-Lobos was larger than life, quite extraordinary. He didn't seem to be a composer. He wore loud checked shirts, smoked a cigar, and always kept the radio on, listening to the news or light music or whatever. Villa-Lobos wasn't refined in the intellectual sense, but he had a great heart." - Julian Bream

Sheet music: Heitor Villa-Lobos

Ralph Vaughan-Williams (1872-1958)

No, it's a B-Flat. It looks wrong and it sounds wrong, but it's right.

Books from Alibris: Ralph Vaughan-Williams

Edgard Varese (1883-1965)

There is an idea, the basis of an internal structure, expanded and split into different shapes or groups of sound constantly changing in shape, direction, and speed, attracted and repulsed by various forces.

Sheet music: Edgard Varese

Michael Tippett (1905-1998)

I am quite certain in my heart of hearts that modern music and modern art is not a conspiracy, but is a form of truth and integrity for those who practise it honestly, decently and with all their being.

Sheet music: Michael Tippett

Virgil Thomson (1896-1989)

I look at you and I write down what I hear.

Sheet music: Virgil Thomson

Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996)

I always want to write erotic music... Not only about the love between men and women, but in a much more universal sense - about the sensuality of the mechanism of the universe... about life.

Sheet music: Toru Takemitsu

Morton Subotnick (1933-)

In creating "The Other Piano," I tried to capture a sense of this pre-verbal embodied musical experience by staying close to basic musical qualities. The work unfolds slowly and with emphasis on the small changes in pitch, time and loudness that bring meaningfulness to our expression. The surround quality is exactly that, surrounding us as if we are inside the sound.

Sheet music: Computer Music

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

I was born out of due time in the sense that by temperament and talent I should have been more suited for the life of a small Bach, living in anonymity and composing regularly for an established service and for God.

Sheet music: Igor Stravinsky

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer.

Never look at the trombones. You'll only encourage them.

Sheet music: Richard Strauss

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007)

And when they encounter works of art which show that using new media can lead to new experiences and to new consciousness, and expand our senses, our perception, our intelligence, our sensibility, then they will become interested in this music.

A Message from Professor Karlheinz Stockhausen (Sept. 19, 2001)

After returning from Hamburg I find false, defamatory reports in the press.

I am as dismayed as everyone else about the attacks in America.

At the press conference in Hamburg, I was asked if MICHAEL, EVE and LUCIFER were historical figures of the past and I answered that they exist now, for example Lucifer in New York.

In my work, I have defined Lucifer as the cosmic spirit of rebellion, of anarchy. He uses his high degree of intelligence to destroy creation. He does not know love.

After further questions about the events in America, I said that such a plan appeared to be Lucifer's greatest work of art. Of course I used the designation "work of art" to mean the work of destruction personified in Lucifer. In the context of my other comments this was unequivocal.

I cannot find a fitting name for such a "satanic composition". In my case, it was not and is not my intention to hurt anyone. Since the beginning of the attack onward I have felt solidarity with all of the human beings mourning this atrocity.

Not for one moment have I thought or felt the way my words are now being interpreted in the press.

The journalist in Hamburg completely ripped my statements out of a context, which he had not recorded in its entirety, to use it as a vile attack against my person and the Hamburg Music Festival.

This whole situation is regrettable and I am deeply sorry if my remarks were misconstrued to offend the grieving families of the brutal terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington D.C. I will continue to keep the victims of this outrage in my prayers

Karlheinz Stockhausen
September 19, 2001 - The text of these remarks and further comment is at:

http://www.stockhausen.org/message_from_karlheinz.html

Sheet music: Karlheinz Stockhausen

Stephen Sondheim (1930-)

Musicals are plays, but the last collaborator is your audience, so you've got to wait 'til the last collaborator comes in before you can complete the collaboration.

Books from Alibris: Stephen Sondheim

Harry Somers (1925-1999)

Harry Somers was born in Toronto, Ontario, and showed an interest in music only in his early teens. He engaged in intensive piano studies, which were so productive that at the age of 16 he entered the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where he studied piano with Reginald Godden and Weldon Kilburn and composition with John Weinzweig, receiving scholarships in 1947 and 1949. In the late 40's, he went first to San Francisco to continue piano with E. Robert Schmitz, and then to Paris to study composition under Darius Milhaud (1949-50). - Malaspina Biography

Sheet music: Harry Somers

Bessie Smith (c 1898-1937)

When my bed is empty, Makes me feel awful mean and blue. My springs are getting rusty, Living single like I do.

Sheet music: Bessie Smith

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

Pay no attention to what the critics say...Remember, a statue has never been set up in honor of a critic!

Sheet music: Jean Sibelius

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

A creative artist works on his next composition because he was not satisfied with his previous one.

Sheet music: Dmitri Shostakovich

Artie Shaw (1910-2004)

You have no idea of the people I didn't marry.

Sheet music: Artie Shaw

Pete Seeger (1919-)

I still call myself a communist, because communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it.

Sheet music: Pete Seeger