Aaron Copland

During these years I began to feel an increasing dissatisfaction with the relations of the music-loving public and the living composer. It seemed to me that we composers were in danger of working in a vacuum.

Mozart tapped the source from which all music flows, expressing himself with a spontaneity and refinement and breathtaking rightness.

I would say that a composer writes music to express and communicate and put down in permanent form certain thoughts, emotions and states of being. The resultant work of art should speak to the men and women of the artist’s own time with a directness and immediacy of communicative power that no previous art expression can give.

You may be sitting in a room reading this book. Imagine one note struck upon the piano. Immediately that one note is enough to change the atmosphere of the room – proving that the sound element in music is a powerful and mysterious agent, which it would be foolish to deride or belittle.

A melody is not merely something you can hum.

Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness – I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.

Your accompanist has a lot to do with how you sing, so experiment and choose your partner wisely.

Music doesn’t have to hop to be hip, as long as it swings it sings.

All music is beautiful.

Jazz is a sideways glance at music. It’s like being an architect, knowing the basis of design but understanding that the façade can be whatever you dream. I’m a free person. I don’t want to be tied down.

All musicians stimulate each other. The vibrations get scattered around.

Jazz music is an aural souvenir of mankind’s attempt to express the intangible, the heart, the soul, through art.

I always wanted to play the piano, and jazz appealed to me.

Hipness is what it is. But sometimes hipness is what it ain’t.

What I look for in concert is a connection with the audience.

Jazz translates the moment into a sense of inspiration for not only the musicians but for the listeners.

You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.

What I learned the most from Prince was putting art first, being creatively ambitious, and putting creativity at the forefront of what I do.

If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

The popular song is America’s greatest ambassador.