Quotes About Composition

One of these people—a Canadian, of all things—stands at the picture's center, organizing the many smaller pictures into a coherent whole.

Just as no score relies on only one pitch or level of effort from musicians in the orchestra. Sometimes it relies on silence.

For me, music always leads. Lyrics are only about how they sing. It is wonderful if they read well, too. In the very best scenario, sometimes a lyric will pop out with a melody, simultaneously. That's a lovely thing, but you can't rely on that.

For me, the music dictates the melody. Give me a riff to sing over, you know?

When I am seriously composing, sometimes a phrase will come into my head, a catch phrase. When I was writing pop songs for a few years, as a career, separate from my folksinging career, I used to write songs for pop singers.

The 'Missa Mirabilis' is a big work which was conceived for a large organ and a lot of singers.

What comprises good performance? The ability through singing or playing to make the ear conscious of the true content and affect of a composition.

I don't want to put 12 singles on an album. I want to make a story, a little movie.

You have to ration your creativity over all your songs. You write a really cool pop song then you have to write a heavy song to balance out, then you need to think about singles.

Collage is not a kitchen sink; it's not a refuge for the compositionally disabled.

Cheerfulness, sir, is the principle ingredient in the composition of health.

The Fat Mattress consisted of people I'd played with before joining the 'Experience and it was put together as a song writing situation.

My main object is to write, to keep learning. I always try to perfect my composition. But I do like writing film and opera music. I believe that it fulfills the needs of particular situations.

I write music to both the situations and the lyrics in plays.

The real architecture happens within the works themselves, and that was done by the composer. That's where the real skill is. In putting together a program, you're more a curator, but that's important as well. And then the interpreting of it is where our big job is.

Thats part of what I love about photography - the images I like are the ones that look the most relaxed, but a lot of skill goes into making them look that that relaxed.

While it is true that Frank had a great sense of humor, he was also very serious about composing music. In reality there are only a handful of skilled players who can play his most complex pieces. It takes a lot of patience to learn and requires a fantastic memory.

My skills are musical, not lyrical.

You apply the skills you use to produce your own book to make an anthology. Shaping. Rhythm.

I get my most creative energy after a show, so I love to go back to the hotel and compose new material. I generally do it in a rush. I have to get it out, otherwise I can't sleep.

I love the structural part of the writing process.

The concept is basically; that the pieces we know and love are made up of scales, arpeggios, and the like.

Most of the time I am sunk in thought, but at some point on each walk there comes a moment when I look up and notice, with a kind of first-time astonishment, the amazing complex delicacy of the words, the casual ease with which elemental things come together to form a composition that is--whatever the season, wherever I put my besotted gaze--perfect.

That is unquestionably the most astounding thing about us—that we are just a collection of inert components, the same stuff you would find in a pile of dirt. I've said it before in another book, but I believe it's worth repeating: the only thing special about the elements that make you is that they make you. That is the miracle of life.