John Tavener Quotes

A composer knows that music is written by human beings for human beings and that music is a continuation of life, not something separated from it.

I think that, as a person, Beethoven talks to everyone in different ways.

What music can do so well is tell the truth in a subjective way.

Music should be able to invoke the natural emotions in all human beings. Music is not notes fixed on apiece of paper.

Mozart makes us care about people in flashes of lightning.

I can only think of music as something inherent in every human being - a birthright. Music coordinates mind, body and spirit.

Is it not the business of the conductor to convey to the public in its dramatic form the central idea of a composition; and how can he convey that idea successfully if he does not enter heart and soul into the life of the music and the tale it unfolds?

Everyone's just extracting meaning and feeling and emotion from almost every aspect of music, and I think that for me, it's a huge antidote to that to have a concept album.

The guitar for me is a translation device. It's not a goal. And in some ways, jazz isn't a destination for me. For me, jazz is a vehicle that takes you to the true destination - a musical one that describes all kinds of stuff about the human condition and the way music works.

The only thing that interests me in music is to be able to reach into the, let's call it, 'collective unconscious' of what is noblest in the human spirit, the way you find in the music of Mozart and Beethoven and Verdi that wonderful quality that not a note can be changed.

I'm interested in music as an extension of character.

But it wasn't just a technical approach towards the piano, studying the music for this film was also a way of approaching the soul of the film, because the film is really about the soul of Schubert and the soul of Bach.

The most important thing about music that I've learned after all this time is that to me, it's a way of reaching the truth.

Music is like the genius of humankind, universal... People who have never really taken the time to get into music, their lives are a lot smaller. Kids deserve the richness and dimension of it in their lives.

I play only classical music. My pianos are my only big indulgence, but they're a necessity. When I'm playing the piano is literally the only time I can be completely abstract and disconnected from the regular world and yet be connected - to my music.

I've always said music should make you laugh, make you cry or make you think.

If a professional musician in a symphony orchestra is playing Beethoven. But this particular orchestra have played this particular chestnut so many times, they can play it in their sleep. Does the genius remain present in the music or not?

Your personal history is a part of what happens with your hands and your head as you play music.

My favorite song is called 'Reachout.' There are so many different stories told in that song. I think anyone who listens to it will gather a different meaning, but each answer is true. I also like the sound of it, period - there are a lot of classical influences.

My books are personal: I'm not saying they're the Bible of music.

That's what I love about music. It's immediate. There's a connection whether you are playing at Hyde Park or Chicago, and it's been happening since the beginning of time and the troubadours.

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

I think that music, being an expression of the human heart, or of the human being itself, does express just what is happening - the whole of human experience at the particular time that it is being expressed.

For me, growing-up music was always about telling stories.

There is no truer truth obtainable by Man than comes of music