Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinskywas a Russian-French-American composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth17 June 1882
CityLomonosov, Russia
CountryRussian Federation
Igor Stravinsky quotes about
flying too-late speed
We can neither put back the clock nor slow down our forward speed, and as we are already flying pilotless, on instrument controls, it is even too late to ask where we are going.
confused imagination invention
Invention presupposes imagination but should not be confused with it.
confused imagination doe
We have a duty towards music; namely to invent it. ...Invention presupposes imagination but should not be confused with it. For the act of invention implies the necessity of a lucky find and of achieving realization of this find. What we imagine does not necessarily take on concrete form and may remain in a state of virtuality; whereas invention is not conceivable apart from its actually being worked out.
sea sick drunk
I never am sea sick, never. I am sea drunk!
writing vivaldi
Vivaldi didn't write 400 concertos; he wrote one concerto 400 times.
music moving order
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.
childhood custodians mercy
When I discovered that I had been made custodian of this gift, in my earliest childhood, I pledged myself to God to be worthy of it, but I have received uncovenanted mercies all my life. The custodian has too often kept faith on his all-too-worldly terms.
inventor
I am an inventor of music.
music-is powerless
Music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all. Music expresses itself.
impulse music-is succession
All music is nothing more than a succession of impulses that converge towards a definite point of repose.
sound forget forget-it
We cannot describe sound, but we cannot forget it either.
stealing composer
Good composers don't borrow, they steal
ducks enough
Music must be listened to; it is not enough to hear it. A duck hears also.
elements chance fluctuation
What I cannot follow are the manic-depressive fluctuations from total control to no control, from the serialization of all elements to chance.