From childhood I was passionately fond of music and wanted to be a musician. I have no recollection of any real desire ever to be anything else.
John Philip Sousa
The office of President is a great one; to every true American it seems the greatest on earth. And to me, as I was engaged in weaving a background of... →
Is it not the business of the conductor to convey to the public in its dramatic form the central idea of a composition; and how can he convey that... →
I firmly believe that we have more latent musical talent in America than there is in any other country. But to dig it out there must be good music... →
Composers are the only people who can hear good music above bad sounds.
Anybody can write music of a sort. But touching the public heart is quite another thing.
I can almost always write music; at any hour of the twenty-four, if I put pencil to paper, music comes.
Grand opera is the most powerful of stage appeals and that almost entirely through the beauty of music.
There is much modern music that is better adapted to a wind combination than to a string, although for obvious reasons originally scored for an... →
To the average mind popular music would mean compositions vulgarly conceived and commonplace in their treatment. That is absolutely false.