Aaron Copland

I hope my recordings of my own works won’t inhibit other people’s performances. The brutal fact is that one doesn’t always get the exact tempo one wants, although one improves with experience.

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.

A great symphony is a man-made Mississippi down which we irresistibly flow from the instant of our leave-taking to a long forseen destination.

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.

It made no sense to ignore them and to continue writing as if they did not exist. I felt that it was worth the effort to see if I couldn’t say what I had to say in the simplest possible terms.

I adore extravagance but I abhor waste.

Everything I record, I just try to sound like me and come up with songs that suit what I do and then just go for it. I never know what the public’s going to like, anyway.

The arranger doesn’t get any royalties, but I had so much fun doing it.

Musicians need to continue higher learning try to expand the pallet.

It’s easy to play any musical instrument, just touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.

I’m meant to be an artist who can stand on my own. That’s my place; that’s what I’m supposed to do.

People like the idea of the trio and so I did mostly trio.

I want a kick to my band, but I don’t want the rhythm to hog the spotlight.

I am famous because I am an African American jazz artist.

The sign of a mature musician is knowing what not to play.

The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.

Those who wish to sing, always find a song.

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.

There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. They are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence. These are the qualities I want to retain in my music.