John Tavener Quotes

I believe so, but at first he must know. He must know in which spirit Beethoven has composed this piece. He must try to study that. And he must find out in which station of life of Beethoven he did.

My music wouldn't sound the way it does if I hadn't had the experience of conducting.

What I'm hoping is that every album I'm going to do will give my audience something different, and that they'll grow as I do.

I'm just writing less of my own music lately - I go in and out of phases a lot. Sometimes there are these accidents that just sort of happen, that are kind of waiting around the corner. I guess Modest Mouse was one of them.

I get inspired by the sounds that evoke an emotion from me. That's what I am drawn to; that's what turns me on.

A great melodic line is like a person's soul, and coming up with an original melody, it can be like you are illustrating the soul.

The thing that makes me want to proceed and finish a song is when it really touches me and makes me feel something.

Songs seem to always spring from improvisation.

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

Nothing goes full-circle with music.

Sometimes a song can be born in few minutes, if the feeling is right, some other times it can take days.

I've started to see records as just a snapshot, a portrait of where you were at at that time. And if you're comfortable with that, sometimes it's like an old high school year book picture - it makes you blush a little bit, but you gotta learn to really appreciate each stage of your life and where you're at.

Reggaeton is what opened the doors for me, and I'm always grateful for that. I'll do reggaeton for life, but I want to show that I'm an artist who can do everything.

Sometimes something opens up in your brain as I'm writing, thinking about the song, and it's like a whirlwind. It all comes together and I could hear what I wanted the songs to sound like, I just didn't know how to express it.

It's not that I'm trying to write another '7 Years' or a new version of 'Mama Said.' Songs just kind of come out of nowhere, and you need to catch them when they do.

As always, my influences are diverse and not what you might expect from a 'heavy metal' artist.

I think there is quite a continuity over my 25 years of doing music, and I'm always trying to break away from it.

Traveling changed my personality and gave me ability to do the music I do and to think in a certain way that everything can be possible.

We are aware that the conductor is not really making the music, it is making him -- if he is relaxed, open and attuned, then the invisible will take possession of him; through him, it will reach us.

You can't write a song out of thin air you have to feel and know what you are writing about.

I can still write blues songs because I remember everything.

There are times when I want to be plainspoken about my feelings in a song. But there are other times when it's really good to try and get my head around different kinds of song structures, or maybe I might get turned on by trying to write a song that would fit in this one scene in a movie. And by the end of all this, you just end up with a bunch of different ideas. And songs are really just ideas.

Music is a language, and it's like a dictionary that has a lot of words, but if you limited yourself to a couple of definitions you would be illiterate. If one limits oneself to a peculiar definition like 'new music,' 'avant-garde,' or something like that, I think it's like cutting out half the dictionary.

I suspect by the time the Beatles were writing the White Album, they didn't go, "'I Wanna Hold Your Hand!' I wanna play that!" It's like if somebody asked you to put on the clothes you wore in high school. Well, no. No!

If some of those people who wanted to ban Beethoven's music could hear the music that's being played today, wow, what would they do, man?