Writing Music Is Not So Much Inspiration

When I'm In My Normal Mood, Music Drips From My Fingers.

Modern European Composers...have Very Largely Received Their Stimulus, Their Rhythms And Impulses From Machine Age America. They Have A Much Older Tradition Of Musical Technique Which Has Helped Them Put Into Musical Terms A Little More Clearly The Thoughts That Originated Here. They Can Express Themselves More Glibly.

The Composer Does Not Sit Around And Wait For An Inspiration To Walk Up And Introduce Itself...making Music Is Actually Little Else Than A Matter Of Invention Aided And Abetted By Emotion. In Composing We Combine What We Know Of Music With What We Feel.

I Want To Say At Once That I Frankly Believe That Irving Berlin Is The Greatest Songwriter That Has Ever Lived.... His Songs Are Exquisite Cameos Of Perfection, And Each One Of Them Is As Beautiful As Its Neighbor. Irving Berlin Remains, I Think, America's Schubert.

An Entire Composition Written In Jazz Could Not Live.