Will Oldham Quotes

Piano playing is a dying art. I love the fact that I can be one guy with one instrument evoking an emotional and musical experience.

I am a singer, first and foremost, but the medium happens to be the cello.

In its beginnings, music was merely chamber music, meant to be listened to in a small space by a small audience.

I approach everything as chamber music. Even with Beethoven symphonies, I lead from the violin and basically encourage the orchestra to think of it as a giant string quartet.

A Beethoven symphony should be rehearsed like chamber music, only for a lot more people.

Next year I'm going to be a guesting soloist with orchestras all over Europe, to start off with.

I took up violin because my best mate had taken it up, so I did likewise.

The Detroit String Quartet played Brahms last night. Brahms lost.

From time to time, the Vienna Philharmonic could play without a conductor because they are so good.

Playing in an orchestra is where I learned the most about music.

A lot of people think the orchestra is playing and the conductor doesn't do very much, but the conductor's the person that gives shape to the music, gets the phrasing, and if he has really fine musicians in solo spots, the question is does he try to help them phrase, or does he let them go?

I don't believe in a composer who is only able to compose, who can't play or conduct, can only use a computer. If that trend continues there will be no more symphonies, no more oratorios.

Deutsche Grammophon really has a grasp of the classical repertoire.

I feel like once you go with a band, it's hard to go back. I just don't see myself performing without a band.

My grandmother got me recordings of the 'Goldberg Variations,' in addition to the 'Brandenburg Concertos,' the Mozart string quartets and Beethoven's 'Seventh Symphony.'

I am lucky to have the greatest band and when you add a symphony orchestra to the mix it brings all of my songs to a whole new level. I wouldn't say I really change what I do but, having those talented musicians behind me, along with my band, really makes the songs so much bigger and more fun to sing.

Some people think a song without words isn't a real song. Tell that to Beethoven and he'll kick your ass!

I've only ever been in one band in my life, and that was in middle school.

For fun, I love to play the drums... poorly. I have a band, a bunch of theater nerds - we got together, and we're like, 'Let's play rock music for three hours and never take breaks.' We call ourselves The U.S. Open.

At the end of the day, I am singing the composer's creation, and I follow the instructions given to me. What I feel may be a right take may not work for the composer or his vision on how he thinks the song should sound.

I was a harpsichordist in my teens, and there was a bunch of us in Liverpool who got together every week to play Bach.

What is so important is that you play for the artist and for the record and for the song ... everything else falls into place ... my solo has to be a complement to the singer and the song.

A Beethoven string-quartet is truly, as some one has said, a scraping of horses' tails on cats' bowels, and may be exhaustively described in such terms; but the application of this description in no way precludes the simultaneous applicability of an entirely different description.

[Patrick Leonard] is such a magnificent composer. I don't think there is anybody working today with those kind of skills that could translate one of my tunes into that really beautiful chamber music.

As with any art, you create it [drumming] out of something that isn't there. It's very architectural. It's the architecture of whatever piece of music I'm playing. I think the whole idea of drumming is to allow other people around you to more easily express themselves.