If Someone Says Can't, That Shows You

What Is The Purpose Of Writing Music? One Is, Of Course, Not Dealing With Purposes But Dealing With Sounds. Or The Answer Must Take The Form Of A Paradox: A Purposeful Purposeless Or A Purposeless Play. This Play, However, Is An Affirmation Of Life--not An Attempt To Bring Order Out Of Chaos Nor To Suggest Improvements In Creation, But Simply A Way Of Waking Up To The Very Life We’re Living, Which Is So Excellent Once One Gets One’s Mind And One’s Desires Out Of Its Way And Lets It Act Of Its Own Accord.

I Was Shocked At College To See One Hundred Of My Classmates In The Library All Reading Copies Of The Same Book. Instead Of Doing As They Did, I Went Into The Stacks And Read The First Book Written By An Author Whose Name Began With Z. I Received The Highest Grade In The Class. That Convinced Me That The Institution Was Not Being Run Correctly. I Left.

After I Had Been Studying With Him For Two Years, Schoenberg Said, ‘in Order To Write Music, You Must Have A Feeling For Harmony.’ I Explained To Him That I Had No Feeling For Harmony. He Then Said That I Would Always Encounter An Obstacle, That It Would Be As Though I Came To A Wall Through Which I Could Not Pass. I Said, ‘in That Case I Will Devote My Life To Beating My Head Against That Wall.’

Discord Occasions A Momentary Distress To The Ear, Which Remains Unsatisfied, And Even Uneasy, Until It Hears Something Better. I Am Convinced...that Provided The Ear Be At Length Made Amends, There Are Few Dissonances Too Strong For It. Disharmony, To Paraphrase Bergson's Statement About Disorder, Is Simply A Harmony To Which Many Are Unaccustomed.

There Will Always Be Critics Eager To Fashion Opinions For The Lazy And Incapable.