Aaron Copland

If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong.

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

Is there a meaning to music? Yes. Can you state in so many words what the meaning is? No.

But I have always suspected that one could substitute the Minuet of Haydn’s 98th symphony for the Minuet in Haydn’s 99th symphony without sensing a serious lack of coherence in either work.

When I speak of the gifted listener, I am thinking of the nonmusician primarily, of the listener who intends to retain his amateur status. It is the thought of just such a listener that excites the composer in me.

Composers tend to assume that everyone loves music. Surprisingly enough, everyone doesn’t.

It’s up to the individual to keep up with the times.

The hippest thing you can do is not play at all. Just listen.

I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.

I think the most important thing about playing is to walk out with confidence, look the people right in the eye and say ‘Here I am,’ and go and do your thing. As soon as they know you’re confident, they’re confident. As long as you adjust to them you’re not in trouble. You should eyeball them, find out what they want, and give it to them. They didn’t pay to come out and look at the tapestries.

Unless I really loved it and felt really passionate about it, I would just kind of abort the song and start a new one.

We all played bad before we played good.

Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.

I love it when people hear my music but can’t figure out what instrument I’m playing.

What are you going to do when you love music? You can’t stop.

I am not interested in compromising my music to make it palatable to an assumed sub-standard mass.

The true musician plays what he/she hears. That cannot be a mistake.

Music is the most interesting thing in the world.

Some people try to get very philosophical and cerebral about what they’re trying to say with jazz. You don’t need any prologues, you just play. If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.

Jazz stands for freedom.

I went through a lot of mental pains and anguish about choosing between jazz and classical. I realized that where I functioned was where I should be, and where I functioned was in jazz, so that was it.