Isadora Duncan Quotes

What is American music? The most satisfying answer I've come across is that it was a kind of natural comfort with the vernacular which is diverse and regional; it's not one particular set of sounds.

Progressive music probably wouldn't even really exist if not for the people of the United States having picked up on it and nurtured it in the way they did. It really is an American form of music in the sense that it was nurtured here. So it belongs here. It has become part of the fabric of American musical culture.

Is it true that we must accept the music of another race as being that which is American? Have not the white Americans sufficient individuality to develop a characteristic style of composition.

In the Negro melodies of America I find all that is needed for a great and noble school of music.

A country is made not by policy alone, but by its music, its entertainment shows, all of it.

It's like there's the rest of the world, and then there's America. Part of the reason I would really love continue to making music over here because so much of American music has inspired me, whether it's Jeff Buckley, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen.

Well, I don't think anyone now would say that they're painting the state of the culture of America. I think that's too grand and pompous a thing for anybody to claim.

I'm an American songwriter, and I write from a very American perspective, and so did the records I grew up listening to.

I'm interested in what it means to be an American. I'm interested in what it means to live in America. I'm interested in the kind of country that we live in and leave our kids. I'm interested in trying to define what that country is.

Queen Victoria did not regard art, letters, or music as in any way springing from national character: they were something quite apart, elegant decorations resembling a scarf or a bracelet, and in no way expressive of the soul of the country.

The music is just so rich and part of the culture there. I suddenly felt like I needed to go on this mission to make sure we save New Orleans because - not that I can save anything - but it's so much part of what this country is, this whole mix of people coming together and doing this thing.

Chicago gave me more music than any other city in America.

They were singing in French, but the melody was freedom and any American could understand that.

One of the great virtues, apart from the pleasure of performing these works, is that it's opened up an entirely new, expansive repertoire of American Jewish music.

I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock 'n' roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture.

I love music, I love all kinds of music, particularly jazz. Jazz is an extension of America. There's no other country in the world that could have produced jazz.

At its best, American music is the soundtrack of our long - and often painful - march toward a more perfect union.

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts - the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.

I've never set out consciously to write American music. I don't know what that would be unless the obvious Appalachian folk references.

It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive character.

I want to make music that somehow connects to the things that I love in America music.

In general it can be said that a nation's art is greatest when it most reflects the character of its people.

People are going to wake up to this great reservoir of music we've created in America - cakewalks, one-steps, boogie-woogie, country and western. I had a bit to do with one of those traditions.

American movies and music deliver themes of freedom, innocence, and power that appeal to others - partly because America itself was put together out of a multiplicity of national traditions.

Certainly, jazz has become more of a niche, which is surprising, because it's our music. It's the national music of America.