James Joseph Sylvester Quotes

From a very early period of my life I have derived the highest enjoyment from listening to music, especially to melody, which is to me the most pleasing form of composition.

There's a basic rule which runs through all kinds of music, kind of an unwritten rule. I don't know what it is. But I've got it.

Being honest and spontaneous is important when making music. But I'm also really logical when I compose.

My musical knowledge is so bad it's embarrassing. When composers discuss music with someone as primitive as myself, they have to talk about it in terms of senses and emotion, rather than keys and tempo.

I can't read music. That's not where I come from musically. I come strictly from feeling, and that feeling comes from rock & roll.

My head works in music, so there's always music there.

Your own music comes out of your head and emotions, but it's not etched in your system.

The advice I am giving always to all my students is above all to study the music profoundly... music is like the ocean, and the instruments are little or bigger islands, very beautiful for the flowers and trees.

I used to play the piano by listening to it - like Chopin pieces, when I was, like, a little kid - and then the minute my parents got me lessons to read music, I couldn't do it anymore.

Because essentially Schoenberg was an extremely gifted man. And in spite of many of his theories and so on, when he really began to write music, he still was guided very much by his internal hearing, by what we call your internal ear.

I've never written a song in my life. It's all a big hoax.

Music looks very formidable to people outside of it and it looks like it's this realm of spooky genius.

Music is all about training in harmony, training to understand and use musical energy for our greater pleasure by attuning to the natural laws of the universe.

I like to listen to my iPod and also play music. I've been doing percussion since I was eight or nine. Rhythm is crucial in long jump but also in life.

Trying to describe something musical is like dancing to architecture, it's really difficult.

No, improvising is wonderful. But, the thing is that you cannot improvise unless you know exactly what you're doing.

If I get an idea for a song, I have a melody for it. I'm a musician first. I'm not limited by the fretboard.

When I think of music, I think of music in totality, complete.

I usually think in terms of music.

Music is quite an enigma because it is many things together, and it is one whole body. Like a nucleus, it contains every idea, but the basic stand is the same.

Music is the emotional life of most people.

There's a certain groove you pick that makes the music flow, and when you have it it's in your pocket. It's the feeling behind the rhythm... to me, the hardest thing to strive for is that feeling, behind the groove.

There's no field of music which doesn't have good ideas.

The world of classical music is so fascinating. It's a world that encompasses people from everywhere and erases the basic restraints of nationality; everyone is united by this common language of music.

I can't imagine a world without music.