That was one of the big problems when I was at Harvard studying music. We had to write choral pieces in the style of Brahms or Mendelssohn, which was distressing because in the end you realized how good Brahms is, and how bad you are.
quote by Elliott Carter
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The Detroit String Quartet played Brahms last night. Brahms lost.
quote by Bennett Cerf
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If you go to Japan for instance, you should know that they have a different way of playing Beethoven or Brahms. But if you play with them Mozart, Debussy, Mendelssohn, they have a wonderful light feeling for that.
quote by Kurt Masur
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Aimes-tu Brahms?
I am metabolizing Brahms
running his First Piano Trio
directly into an artery
the virus insinuates itself into
the probability field I call my life
lysergic bursts
light the limbic lattices
of my brain
and I
a lucipetal moth
impelled
toward the bright fields of mind
my thinking is wide now
all open
no fastenings
no demands
aimes-tu Brahms?
poem by Joan Woodbridge
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Sometime at a concert hall, in recollection...
Sometime at a concert hall, in recollection,
A Brahms intermezzo will wound me-I'll start,
Remember that summer, the flowerbed garden,
The walks and the bathing, the tryst of six hearts,
The awkward, shy artist, with steep, dreamlike forehead,
Her smile, into which one would dive for a while,
A smile, as good-natured and bright as a river,
Her artist's appearance, her forehead, her smile.
They'll play me some Brahms-I will shudder, surrender,
And in retrospection the sounds will evoke
That faraway summer, the hoard of provisions,
My son and my brother, the garden, the oak.
The artist would stuff in her overall pockets
Her pencils, and objects with fanciful names,
Or would, inadvertently dropping her palette,
Turn much of the grass into colourful stains.
They'll play me some Brahms-I'll surrender, remember
The stubborn dry brushwood, the entrance, the roof,
Her smile and appearance, the mouth and the eyebrows,
The darkened verandah, the steps and the rooms.
And suddenly, as in a fairytale sequence,
The family, neighbours and friends will appear,
And-memories crowding-I'll drown in my weeping
Before I have time to have shed all my tears.
And, circling around in a swift intermezzo-
Embracing the song like a treetrunk at noon,
Four families' shadows will turn on the meadow
To Brahms's compelling and childhood-clear tune
poem by Boris Pasternak
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Friends Within The Darkness
I can remember starving in a
small room in a strange city
shades pulled down, listening to
classical music
I was young I was so young it hurt like a knife
inside
because there was no alternative except to hide as long
as possible--
not in self-pity but with dismay at my limited chance:
trying to connect.
the old composers -- Mozart, Bach, Beethoven,
Brahms were the only ones who spoke to me and
they were dead.
finally, starved and beaten, I had to go into
the streets to be interviewed for low-paying and
monotonous
jobs
by strange men behind desks
men without eyes men without faces
who would take away my hours
break them
piss on them.
now I work for the editors the readers the
critics
but still hang around and drink with
Mozart, Bach, Brahms and the
Bee
some buddies
some men
sometimes all we need to be able to continue alone
are the dead
rattling the walls
that close us in.
Anonymous submission.
poem by Charles Bukowski
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A symphony is no joke.
quote by Johannes Brahms
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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If there is anyone here whom I have not insulted, I beg his pardon.
quote by Johannes Brahms
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Study Bach. There you will find everything.
quote by Johannes Brahms
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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I sometimes ponder on variation form and it seems to me it ought to be more restrained, purer.
quote by Johannes Brahms
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.
quote by Johannes Brahms
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After working with Ligeti I began to hear Brahms and Beethoven differently.
quote by Esa-Pekka Salonen
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We cling nervously to the melody, but we don't handle it freely, we don't really make anything new out of it, we merely overload it.
quote by Johannes Brahms
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Brahms believed that there was no need to publish absolutely everything that Schubert ever wrote.
quote by Dietrich Fischer Dieskau
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There are some experiences in life which should not be demanded twice from any man, and one of them is listening to the Brahms Requiem.
quote by George Bernard Shaw
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Straight-away the ideas flow in upon me, directly from God, and not only do I see distinct themes in my mind's eye, but they are clothed in the right forms, harmonies, and orchestration.
quote by Johannes Brahms
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I don't believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos.
quote by Oscar Peterson
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Composers in the old days used to keep strictly to the base of the theme, as their real subject. Beethoven varies the melody, harmony and rhythms so beautifully.
quote by Johannes Brahms
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Constant Is This Hip Hop And Pop
It is today,
Very constant.
Constant is this hip hop and pop.
And with some added rapping touches...
This phenomenon is not going to stop.
No not very soon.
I'd like to admit I like Tchaikovsky's,
Attitude.
With a little bit of Brahms,
When I'm in that mood.
Move over Beetoven when I'm open to Chopin,
And Mozart too!
I'd like to admit I like Tchaikovsky's,
Attitude.
With a little bit of Brahms,
When I'm in that mood.
Move over Beetoven when I'm open to Chopin,
And Mozart too!
It is today,
Very constant.
Constant is this hip hop and pop.
And with some added rapping touches...
This phenomenon is not going to stop.
No not very soon.
Constant is this hip hop.
And the attitudes.
Constant is this hip hop.
What is one going to do?
Knowing there's no end that stops.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Giving Your Body All The Right Chi
the gemologist who claims
himself a religionist asks
his client politely; 'I am very sorry,
can i fix your religion for you too?
well all religions preach righteousness
but like a stone, each has its own chi
and you need to follow the one that works
with your chi. you need to let religion
work for you and not the other way round.
let me see. oh ya, you are a amitabah person
and your stone amethyst, music brahms, fruit
mango... they all help you with your chi. makes
you a more balanced being. if you are open to ideas..'
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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It is not hard to compose, but what is fabulously hard is to leave the superfluous notes under the table.
quote by Johannes Brahms
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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