Artur Schnabel Quotes

I like to have space between the notes. I like to use silence.

The value of music is to be able to play one note at the right time in the right way.

I wanted to develop a guitar style where phrases and lines get there just in the nick of time, like with Curtis Mayfield and Steve Cropper. Subtleties mean so much, and there is a stunning beauty in them.

You can play a shoestring if you're sincere.

You know, I think music is very interactive. It's a - it's a language.

With the piano I'm completely in control of the gestural situation-not that I'm going to play the piece myself, but I know what's difficult, what's impossible.

Well, rhythm is 90 percent of the interpretation.

You have certain expressions when you write music, a lot of different emotions, a lot of different feelings.

No one should be allowed to make music as if he were made of wood. One must reproduce the musical text exactly, but not play like a stone.

So basically, I think music at its best can be everything. It can be totally stupid and very intellectual and emotional at the same time. I don't think all those things shut each other out.

Music is the silence between the notes.

I record cello Etudes that are fewer than four minutes long and post them on YouTube. How can one execute fully-formed ideas with utmost perfection, yet stay free enough to allow improvisatory nuance? This has immediate application in almost every area of life, but especially in performance.

The one thing I do know is that I'm the best Taylor Hawkins drummer there is, and that is all I can hope to be. And when it comes to music, musicianship and skill, there is no such thing as better or worse because so much is personal opinion, and I can see that now.

There is no 'perfect' in music. If I ever came off the stage and felt it could not be better, it would then be time to quit.

The soprano turned out to sound to me like the right hand on the piano.

Can't you read? The score demands 'con amore', and what are you doing? You are playing it like married men!

Mozart would play a counterpart with his left hand while using his right to mock it. It was blue, dark, shadowy - and it made me feel something. That's when I realized music was inside me.

I don't think I handle the notes much differently from other pianists. But the pauses between the notes - ah, there is where the artistry lies!!

There's art in rhythm playing. Just find it. Make your own art. Find your place, and when it's your time to solo, it's your time to shine.

I love songwriting. It's second to my love for singing in how I express myself.

In music, the punctuation is absolutely strict, the bars and rests are absolutely defined. But our punctuation cannot be quite strict, because we have to relate it to the audience. In other words we are continually changing the score.

What I really enjoy about writing for orchestras is realizing that - and it's kind of self-evident - but the fact that they are 48 individuals. It's not, you know, a preset on a keyboard. It's all these people who have opinions and who are making decisions about how to play.

The art of interpretation is not to play what is written.

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

The only thing I have ever really cared to be known as is a musician.