Funny quotes about classical music composer

"The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping.”
By Benjamin Britten, British composer



"A good composer is slowly discovered and a bad composer is slowly found out."
By Ernest Newman



"A good composer does not imitate; he steals."
By Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer



"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
By John Cage



"It is not hard to compose, but it is wonderfully hard to let the superfluous notes fall under the table."
By Johannes Brahms



"A creative artist works on his next composition because he is not satisfied with his previous one.
By Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer

Funny quotes from classical music composer

“Brahms' Variations are better than mine, but mine were written before his.” 
By Franz Liszt


“That will make the ladies scream.” 
By Joseph Haydn talked about his surprise symphony no94.



“Give me a laundry-list and I'll set it to music.” 
By Gioachino Rossini

"I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer." 
By Richard Strauss

"There is one god -- Bach -- and Mendelssohn is his prophet" 
By Hector Berlioz

"Though I had some instruction from Haydn, I never learned anything from him." 
By Ludwig van Beethoven, quoted in Marion M Scott, Beethoven, 1934

 
"I cannot conceive of music that expresses absolutely nothing." 
By Bela Bartok

"What a masterpiece, but what despair! It's enough to make you long for death." 
By Georges Bizet (speaking of Schumann's Manfred); quoted in Dean, Bizet (1975)