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"As rich as Cincinnati was in live music, New York was even more."
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"There are so few directors who are musical who appreciate music."
"I can see me continuing to make the best music I can, and let the chips fall where they may."
"88% of what we call good songs aren't really good. They merely remind us of a good time we once had."
"I just really longed to do music that reflected me as an adult and music that I thought was for other adults."
"Anything I do has to be directly related to my music. If it isn't, I don't really see a point to it."
"So all of the music had reference, or is inspired by something of the dharma that I've come in contact with."
"A song has to become as much a part of you as a tailored suit."
"There's nothing to compare to live music, there just isn't anything."
Explore more quotes by Gunther Schuller
"But somehow, I felt no inclination to be interested in it in any amateur way, let alone professional, until suddenly I became interested. And the first thing I did was to compose: not play an instrument, but to compose."
"And it is this sense that some of us have to contribute to the culture, to the society in ways that may hurt financially, so what? We do it because we are born to do it, we feel we have no other choice and so be it."
"That was more or less coincidental in the sense that my parents wanted me to come back to New York because that's the center of musical activity still to this day, more or less, and so I auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera."
"I don't hate work, composing is not work for me, it's my pleasure; it's my life. So why should I stop? If something is pleasurable and exciting and rewarding, why should one stop?"
"You know, I'm not gonna take my money with me to heaven or hell, wherever I'm going. So I want to do something good with it even though my means are very limited. I'm no millionaire!"
"So this anchoring in some way, in some important way in the past without repeating the past, but on the basis of the past building something new: that is what is important."
"The record company started as an adjunct to that, to give young composers their first recorded performances; to give young musicians their first debut on a recording. These are all things that big record companies would never touch because there is no money in it!"
"After the war, once the bop revolution had taken hold, there were all kinds of young musicians, talented young musicians, who were ready for this fusion of classical and jazz."
"I would like to read some books: I don't have time; I would like to continue working on my autobiography."
"Because I have sixty years of being a professional composer, conductor, musician, whatever, and you develop a lot of friendships and you get involved with a lot of sort of long-term commitments and obligations."
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