Leo Ornstein Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“Now, what we are not talking about, what you're really coming to, is what compromises one makes so that the listener understands somewhat of what you're doing, what you're trying to express.”

“Because essentially Schoenberg was an extremely gifted man. And in spite of many of his theories and so on, when he really began to write music, he still was guided very much by his internal hearing, by what we call your internal ear.”

“Improvisation is terribly haphazard.”

“We can use techniques in modifying things, in controlling things, but the first impulse has to be something that you simply cannot make just out of technique, or else it becomes perfectly evident that it is nothing but technique that you're exercising.”

“The difference between the student and the born composer is he really hears the thing, and they have to stage it and manipulate it by technical equipment.”

“By the visual pattern, but mostly I'm guided entirely by my ear, what I hear.”

“I think there have been some periods when the writing almost became a bit of a burden.”

“In writing music, the structure of each piece is a very important factor.”

“It doesn't necessarily mean at all that the composer plays his own works best.”

“Of all the arts, music is really the most abstract.”