Robert Schumann Quotes
If we were all determined to play the first violin we should never have an ensemble. therefore, respect every musician in his proper place.
I am so fresh in soul and spirit that life gushes and bubbles around me in a thousand springs.
When you play, do not trouble yourself as to who is listening. Yet always play as though a master listened to you.
In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of.
Art was not created as a way to riches. Strive to become a true artist; all else will take care of itself.
"We liked it" or "I didn't like it" people say. As if it were nothing higher than to please the people!
Endeavour to play easy pieces well and with elegance; that is better than to play difficult pieces badly.
From a pound of iron, that costs little, a thousand watch-springs can be made, whose value becomes prodigious. The pound you have received from the Lord,--use it faithfully.
Can that which has cost the artist days, weeks, months and even years of reflection be understood in a flash by a dilettante?
For me Wagner is impossible... he talks without ever stopping. One can't just talk all the time.
You will be most readily cured of vanity or presumption by studying the history of music, and by hearing the master pieces which have been produced at different periods.
You write to become immortal, or because the piano happens to be open, or you've looked into a pair of beautiful eyes.
When young, one learns his craftsmanship, may become a young master, and it is youth that is most auspicious for developing certain skills.
Think it a vile habit to alter works of good composers, to omit parts of them, or to insert new-fashioned ornaments. This is the greatest insult you can offer to Art.
I feel so entirely in my element with a full orchestra; even if my mortal enemies were marshalled before me, I could lead them, master them, surround them, or repulse them.
The poet sees better than other mortals. I do not see things as they are, but according to my own subjective impression, and this makes life easier and simpler.
The flame that is naturally clear always gives the most light and heat. If I could blend my talent for poetry and music into one, the light would burn still clearer, and I might go far.
We may be sure that a genius like Mozart, were he born today, would write concertos like Chopin and not like Mozart.
Believe me, were I ever to accomplish anything, it would be in music, which has always attracted me; and, without overestimating myself, I am conscious of possessing a certain creative faculty.
We have learned to express the more delicate nuances of feeling by penetrating more deeply into the mysteries of harmony.
Music - so different from painting - is the art which we enjoy most in company with others. A symphony, presented in a room with one other listener, would please him but little.
My symphonies would have reached Opus 100 if I had but written them down... Sometimes I am so full of music, and so overflowing with melody, that I find it simply impossible to write down anything.
My heart pounds sickeningly and I turn pale... I often feel as if I were dead... I seem to be losing my mind.
That first concept is alway the most naturally and best. The mind errs, the emotion never.
My whole life has been a twenty years struggle between poetry and prose, or, if you like to call it so, Music and Law.
Thus it is ever in life. The aims we once pursued no longer satisfy us; we aim, we strive, we aspire, until sight fails, and mind and body find rest in the grave.
Does it not seem as if Mozart's works become fresher and fresher the oftener we hear them?
From a pound of iron, that costs little, a thousand watch-springs can be made, whose value becomes prodigious. The pound you have received from the Lord, --use it faithfully.
